I had a conversation with a friend about what the Iraq war was actually costing us, so I decided to figure it out (~$383 per citizen per year). While I was at it, I estimated the cost of a bunch of Federal things, like Social Security. The methodology was very simple — I found the annual budget expenditures for a bunch of things and then divided by the number of U.S. citizens. Below is a screen-shot of the table or you can get the actual Excel spreadsheet here (it’s called your_taxes.xls). Blue numbers are data (you can click the hypertext-linked categories to find the source of the data) and black numbers are equations (you can view the equations in the cells).
You could argue that your share is related to your income / taxes. But I assumed an equal distribution of the “benefits” per citizen. While not entirely accurate, I do think that is a better assumption than the alternative.
This is just for fun, so enjoy. And if you are so inclined, please build a Town Hall so that we can collectively reallocate our tax dollars.
*Note: These numbers are from Wikipedia, except for the Afghanistan war which was imputed by taking total defense spending less the defense budget less estimates from the press about the annual expenditure in Iraq. The difference likely includes other items, but I assumed that 100% of the difference was the war in Afghanistan. Also note that the budget exceeds taxes — most of you are probably aware that we are spending more than we are bringing in…
5 Comments
August 8, 2008 at 3:20 am
The Iraq war $383 per citizen each year. Not experiencing another 9-11 on American soil - priceless
August 8, 2008 at 12:11 pm
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August 8, 2008 at 1:17 pm
Great exercise. I had a post with some similar themes the other day. It’s shocking to consider our national investment in defense compared to our investment in fundamental sciences. As much as I adore market economies, basic sciences is one place where government investment can help. Here’s a link to my post on Iraq War spending compared with National Cancer Institute research. http://angrykent.com/2008/08/05/cancer-sucks-and-so-do-we/
August 9, 2008 at 11:38 pm
At least the war spending might end soon.
The spending for social security et. al. are staggering, and are only going to grow. These are not even discretionary budget items, and the demographics are only getting worse. The only solution I see is to cut benefits, and means testing for benefits. But I am not holding my breath waiting for a politician willing to commit political suicide by fixing it.
Oh, here are some charts of your budget data: top ten spending categories:
http://www.chartmechanic.com/rest/charts/10961
Average U.S. taxpayer’s share, by category:
http://www.chartmechanic.com/rest/charts/10963
September 12, 2008 at 4:24 pm
Government spends much more than these numbers you have here, and they get that from their printing press.
Also, those here on the blog who support such miserable statism by qualifying this level of taxation with some observation that there has been no attack, is the ultimate of ignorance and perhaps are government employees leeching off the production of others.
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