Just how many terrorists exist on this planet?

[trumad]

Seriously? 100? 500? 1000?

Let's say for kicks that 5000 terrorists exist on this planet. In mho I think that number is high---but let's use it anyway.

So---we spend 80 billion on counter-terrorisim.

80 billion divided by 5000 = I'm lousy at math so I could be wrong--- 160 million per terrorist?

Now I know this is all random number bullshit.... but hey---if you look at it this way you gotta say, WTF!

[el_bryanto]

1. The trouble with that math is you also have to factor in the amount of lives one terrorist can take?

and the amount of damage they can cause. 9/11 showed that those numbers can be quite high.

Bryant

[trumad]

2. 160 million per terrorist?

Well I think that perhaps if we spent the money in more constructive ways such as discovering ways to ween ourselves from oil, and staying the fuck out of the middle east, it might be money better spent.

Ya think?

[sibelian]

3. Always exactly enough

and no more.

[el_bryanto]

8. I actually have done my own math and decided that it's closer to $5.37 per terrorist

Isn't it worth it to spend $5.37 per terrorist to stop tragedies like 9/11?

I mean as long as we are basically making up numbers.

Bryant

[BeyondGeography]

4. If you spent $160 million per terrorist to prevent 9/11 you'd be way ahead

Estimated damage by this account: $3.3 trillion

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/09/08/us/sept-11-reckoning/cost-graphic.html?_r=0

One can quibble with the metrics, but this is the argument one encounters on the cost side. And that's just measuring money; the human toll stretches a lot further.

[trumad]

6. See post 2

[BeyondGeography]

15. We are, fortunately, doing some of that

In the meantime, the benefits of preventing terror are easily grasped. Huge attacks exact awful human suffering and set the whole planet back in terms of generating hatred and fear.

[leveymg]

13. But, it didn't, did it? And most of that $3.3T was the cost of Bush's war in Iraq.

In fact, not a single major act of terrorism has been thwarted by PRISM. So, how are we anything but another broke empire because of it?

[malaise]

5. Well define terrorist

The British called the Mau Mau terrorists now they have to pay millions in reparations.
Ask the Germans about the Jews and so on.
An amorphous concept like terror is way too self-serving for fascists.

[kentuck]

7. Sh-h-h-h...

People might start thinking we're not getting our money's worth?

[demwing]

9. Just a guess? "All of them"

Where else would they be?

[leveymg]

10. Whose terrorists - the ones on the CIA payroll, or the entrepreneurs?

Whoever they are, not one verified attack inside the US has been shown to have been thwarted by this $80 billion boondoggle.

The Return On Investment is just astonishing.

[GeorgeGist]

11. $16,000,000

Didn't stop Tamerlan.

[Recursion]

12. "Terrorist" isn't a separate class of people. This is a moving target

Our actions and other regimes' actions (which are themselves affected by our actions and the number of terrorists) affect the number of terrorists. Feedback makes for difficult calculations.

[Puzzledtraveller]

14. Well, probably all of us are

as what defines a terrorist will change to fit the agenda. Add this massive, continuous collection of data and the evidence against has already been amassed.