War
isn’t
cheap.
The
biggest
costs
of
war
inevitably
involve
the
economically
immeasurable
toll
of
the
lives
lost.
The
fallen
not
only
represent
generations
of
snuffed
out
potential
themselves.
They
also
leave
behind
swathes
of
forever
altered
survivors
doomed
to
follow
the
unpredictable
dictates
of
grief
over
the
coming
decades.
That
being
said,
there
is
a
large
portion
of
the
American
public
that
does
not
seem
to
care
about
anything
other
than
their
own
level
of
disposable
income
and
that
can’t
think
beyond
the
next
news
cycle.
So,
let’s
consider
the
undeniable,
immediate,
financial
impacts
of
this
war
in
Iran
that
President
Donald
Trump
has
gotten
us
into.
The
Pentagon
has
not
yet
released
an
official
estimate
of
the
cost
to
U.S.
taxpayers
for
the
war
against
Iran.
When
the
Pentagon
does
release
an
official
estimate,
I
wouldn’t
necessarily
trust
it
given
that
Trump
lackey
Pete
Hegseth
is
at
the
helm
there.
However,
a
few
days
ago
two
congressional
sources
told
media
outlets
that
the
war
has
been
costing
taxpayers
an
estimated
$1
billion
every
day.
One
day
after
that
initial
estimate
was
released,
reporting
indicated
that
Republicans
on
Capital
Hill
had
privately
expressed
fears
that
the
U.S.
is
actually
spending
more
like
$2
billion
every
day
to
blow
people
up
in
Iran.
Experts
apparently
agree
that
while
American
military
costs
could
climb
to
$2
billion
per
day
in
the
early
days
of
a
war
like
the
one
the
U.S.
just
launched
against
Iran,
ongoing
costs
are
more
likely
to
settle
around
the
$1
billion
per
day
figure.
We’ll
work
with
the
more
conservative
assumption
and
estimate
that
this
war
is
costing
the
U.S.
$1
billion
a
day.
March
has
31
days.
Whatever
lies
Trump
tells
about
this
war
being
over
quickly
in
his
attempts
to
calm
the
markets,
I
guarantee
that,
here
in
reality,
the
war
is
not
going
to
be
over
by
the
end
of
the
month.
We’ll
all
be
spending
at
least
$31
billion
on
the
Iran
war
in
March.
Every
year,
of
the
168
million
or
so
individual
income
tax
returns
filed,
about
112
million
show
at
least
some
taxable
income
(those
who
don’t
owe
any
income
tax
often
do
pay
other
taxes,
like
those
to
fund
Medicare
and
Social
Security,
but
they
are
not
directly
funding
military
spending
in
the
same
way
an
income
taxpayer
is).
Of
course,
though
some
taxpayers
pay
much
more
than
others
depending
on
their
respective
levels
of
income,
for
the
sake
of
this
exercise
we
are
going
to
consider
the
“average”
taxpayer.
So,
$31
billion
to
fund
war
against
Iran
this
month
divided
amongst
the
112
million
individual
income
tax
payers
in
this
country
results
in
an
individual
bill
to
every
single
American
taxpayer
of
$276.79.
I
don’t
know
about
you,
but
I
can
think
of
a
lot
of
other
things
I’d
like
to
spend
$276.79
on
this
month
that
are
not
blowing
up
a
girls’
elementary
school
or
mistakenly
shooting
down
three
of
our
own
fighter
jets.
I
can’t
imagine
that
people
who
were
whining
about
a
carton
of
eggs
going
up
in
price
by
a
dollar
two
years
ago
would
be
alright
with
incinerating
close
to
$300
of
their
own
money
this
month
to
fund
a
senseless
war
that
we
did
not
have
to
fight.
And
that
$276.79
that
the
average
taxpayer
is
spending
in
Iran
this
month
is
only
to
account
for
the
direct
military
costs
of
things
like
missiles,
fuel,
and
a
variety
of
operating
expenses
for
wildly
inefficient
military
hardware.
The
figure
does
not
include
the
many
ancillary
financial
impacts
of
the
war,
like
gas
prices
spiking
by
more
than
50
cents
a
gallon
over
the
course
of
only
a
single
week.
It
probably
won’t
matter,
but
hey,
it’s
worth
a
shot:
If
you
haven’t
cut
your
Trump-loving
family
members
out
of
your
life
yet,
try
pointing
out
to
them
how
they
each
just
spent
$276.79
this
month
on
a
spontaneous
war
against
a
country
they
probably
couldn’t
find
on
an
unlabeled
map
of
the
earth.
At
the
end
of
the
day,
$276.79
could
still
buy
a
hell
of
a
lot
of
eggs.
Jonathan
Wolf
is
a
civil
litigator
and
author
of Your
Debt-Free
JD (affiliate
link).
He
has
taught
legal
writing,
written
for
a
wide
variety
of
publications,
and
made
it
both
his
business
and
his
pleasure
to
be
financially
and
scientifically
literate.
Any
views
he
expresses
are
probably
pure
gold,
but
are
nonetheless
solely
his
own
and
should
not
be
attributed
to
any
organization
with
which
he
is
affiliated.
He
wouldn’t
want
to
share
the
credit
anyway.
He
can
be
reached
at [email protected].