The Real Price of War: How You Pay for the War on Terror

by Joshua S. Goldstein

Overview

Calculates and expounds on the costs to individual Americans of the War on Terror

Are Americans in denial about the costs of the War on Terror? In The Real Price of War, Joshua S. Goldstein argues that we need to face up to what the war costs the average American—both in taxes and in changes to our way of life. Goldstein contends that in order to protect the United States from future attacks, we must fight—and win—the War on Terror. Yet even as President Bush campaigns on promises of national security, his administration is cutting taxes and increasing deficit spending, resulting in too little money to eradicate terrorism and a crippling burden of national debt for future generations to pay.

The Real Price of War breaks down billion-dollar government expenditures into the prices individual Americans are paying through their taxes. Goldstein estimates that the average American household currently pays $500 each month to finance war. Beyond the dollars and cents that finance military operations and increased security within the U.S., the War on Terror also costs America in less tangible ways, including lost lives, reduced revenue from international travelers, and budget pressures on local governments. The longer the war continues, the greater these costs. In order to win the war faster, Goldstein argues for an increase in war funding, at a cost of about $100 per household per month, to better fund military spending, homeland security, and foreign aid and diplomacy.

Americans have been told that the War on Terror is a war without sacrifice. But as Goldstein emphatically states: “These truths should be self-evident: The nation is at war. The war is expensive. Someone has to pay for it.”

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780814731611
Publisher:	New York University Press
Publication date:	08/11/2004
Pages:	232
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.84(d)

About the Author

Joshua S. Goldstein, is an associate of the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown Universityand a leading expert on war. His books include International Relations and War and Gender: How Gender Shapes the War System and Vice Versa. He lives in Amherst, MA.

Table of Contents

Preface
Introduction
Part I Government Spending
1 What Does War Cost?
2 Taxes
3 Budget Cuts
4 Debt
Part II Broader Economic Effects
5 Inflation
6 Business under Stress
7 Profit and Loss in Wartime
Part III Future Costs and How We Divide Them
8 The Price of Failure
9 A War without Sacrifice?
10 Sharing the Burden
11 Pay to Win
Notes
Acknowledgments
Index
About the Author

What People are Saying About This

Wesley K. Clark

"An important book for all Americans about the real costs of the War on Terror. It asks the tough questions about who pays and gives us a better understanding of the war's impact on our everyday lives."
—General (Ret.), Former Supreme Allied Commander, NATO, and author of Winning Modern Wars

From the Publisher

-,

“An interesting book that raises many important questions.”
-Journal of Peace Research

,

“Comprehensive examination of the myriad costs of war.”
-Forecast

,

“A compact and cogent study. Goldstein makes a fine example of a nonideologue at work.
-Publishers Weekly

,

“Goldstein does an admirable job in breaking down current war costs and who we pay them.”
-Jewish Herald-Voice

Editorial Reviews

"An interesting book that raises many important questions."

Journal of Peace Research

"Goldstein does an admirable job in breaking down current war costs and who we pay them."

Jewish Herald-Voice

"Comprehensive examination of the myriad costs of war."

Forecast

Goldstein does an admirable job in breaking down current war costs and who we pay them.”
-Jewish Herald-Voice

“Comprehensive examination of the myriad costs of war.”
-Forecast

“A compact and cogent study. Goldstein makes a fine example of a nonideologue at work.
-Publishers Weekly

“Goldstein is not an economist but a political scientist who takes an interdisciplinary approach to the study of war. Here he argues that the war on terrorism is much more expensive than we have been told and that we must spend now to win it quickly or we will pay far more in the future to do so. Recommended for all public libraries.”
-Library Journal

“An interesting book that raises many important questions.”
-Journal of Peace Research

From the Publisher

A scholar at Brown University offers this compact and cogent study of the costs of the war on terror and how to meet them more effectively. At the present time, the costs of the war, as stated by the administration, are being met through regressive taxes, budget cuts at all levels, inflation and deficit spending. The historical narrative of how these methods have worked (or not worked) in the past is integrated with this section of the book at a level suitable for the lay reader. The author emphasizes that a mood of national commitment and self-sacrifice was there to be drawn on in WWII and immediately after 9/11. But the Bush administration's desire to have both a tax cut and the war on terror has led to failure to rally the nation and underfunding areas like veterans' programs and foreign aid, giving a strong impression abroad of a lack of national will. Goldstein suggests that rescinding the last tax cuts is a good starting point for a national and even international rallying, one that will keep the war on terror from dragging on as long as the Thirty Years' War. In attempting to face facts as he sees them, Goldstein makes a fine example of a nonideologue at work. Agent, Fredrica S. Friedman. (Sept.) Forecast: With the war's cost being made an issue by the Kerry campaign, look for Goldstein on the political talk shows; if he gets picked up by primetime, the book will sell accordingly. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

Goldstein (Watson Inst. of International Studies, Brown Univ.) is not an economist but a political scientist who takes an interdisciplinary approach to the study of war. Here he argues that the war on terrorism is much more expensive than we have been told and that we must spend more now to win it quickly or we will pay far more in the future to do so. In his review of the costs of war, Goldstein includes actual government expenditures, the indirect costs to private businesses, and the costs to society in lost opportunities. He estimates that the real cost of the war for the average household one with an income between $50,000 and $100,000 a year is $500 a month and that the total cost to the country is $600 billion a year. Yet Goldstein contends that we must spend more to cover military actions, improved homeland security, and programs in foreign aid and reconstruction, e.g., targeting areas of poverty abroad (the breeding ground of terrorists). Economists might take issue with his calculations, while others will suggest that his demands are politically unrealistic. The question remains, What price are we willing to pay to preserve our way of life? Recommended for all public libraries. Thomas J. Baldino, Wilkes Univ., PA Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal