Everything Has a Price
Dave Gilson at Mother Jones crunched some numbers to figure out what we’ve spent on SECURING OUR HOMELAND since 9/11/2001 ($690 billion, hahah that’s a lot of money), and also what the attacks and our response to them have cost the nation in other ways (like: estimated cost of delays due to airport screenings, $100 billion).
The number I found most interesting—and maybe it’s because it’s the most accessible, I mean, once numbers reach the BILLIONS, they all seem equally huge—is that the estimated amount of money that it cost Al Qaeda to plan and execute the attacks on 9/11 is $400,000 to $500,000. I read that and was shocked! Not by the amount really (“I could have sworn that was a million-dollar terrorist attack if I ever saw one”), but just that, oh yes, terrorist attacks do not just happen, they also must be bought and paid for just like everything else. And apparently a pretty devastating one is only a half-mil.
Fascinating. My job is actually to buy stuff to Secure the Homeland, and in the context of my work $400K is kind of a paltry sum. (Not in my real life, obviously.) But I still get a little shivery when someone says the word “billion.”
The two political activities with the highest ROI: lobbying and terrorism. Something to think about!