January 18, 2016
To the Editor,
On Friday, January 15, 2016, at the monthly breakfast of the Rogue Valley New Day Network, the manager of the Ashland, Oregon Community Resource Center shared eloquent and powerful words about homeless travelers and basic human needs. He prompted me to think of an oft-heard assertion: We don’t have the financial resources to take care of such pressing ills. That’s not true: The US has huge resources that are being used up in the Iraq War and other endless conflicts.
In 2008, Nobel Economics Laureate Joseph Stiglitz and Harvard scholar Linda Bilmes estimated the eventual total cost of the Iraq War at some $3 trillion dollars. That figure has now been revised. Testifying before a Congressional committee in 2013, Stiglitz asserted that the cost “would easily be in the $4 trillion range” when one includes “lifetime medical care, disability compensation and Social Security for wounded veterans.” The total is $12,308 per person, based on the U.S. population of 325 million in 2016
Based on this new study, the eventual estimated cost of the war for Ashland will be $247 million dollars. When people state that we don’t have the financial resources in Ashland and other communities to provide housing, jobs, and healthcare for the traveler population that includes veterans, and other vital human needs, calmly inform them of the facts.
Sincerely,
John Marciano
