The opportunity cost of war

Falling behind on infrastructure

I recently returned from a two-week tour around Europe and Asia and got a firsthand glimpse at the mass transit systems in Paris, London, Hong Kong and Taipei. In Taipei, I took the new High Speed Rail train from the middle of Taiwan to Taipei in about an hour for $20. Spanning 208 miles from Kaohsiung to Taipei, the line employs Japanese rail technology which trains humming at up to 300 km/hour. The cost of the privately funded project is estimated at $15 billion, or about $72 million per mile.

Back from my tour, I landed in JFK Airport and took the NYC subway back to Manhattan. That experience was a stark reminder of how far U.S. infrastructure has fallen behind after decades of neglect. A couple days later, a bridge collapsed in Minneapolis which suddenly thrust this issue into the limelight.

It saddened me to think about the costs of the war in Iraq, especially if you think in terms of infrastructure opportunity costs. Through the end of 2007, total military and related expenditures are expected to eclipse $460 billion, or about 6,379 miles of high-speed railroad links at $72 million per mile. That is roughly equivalent to NYC to LA to Seattle and back to NYC. No longer would I have to dread going to JFK only to be delayed 6 hours so I can catch a 45 minute flight to Boston. Door-to-door, it'd be a 2 hour trip.

And the worst thing is ... isn't the whole point about going to war to be and feel safer? The world is scarier to me now than ever before.

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This was originally published in a personal blog in August 2007.