2 Trillion Dollar Bill: Afghan War Burdens Every US Citizen with $20K Debt

The United States has spent over two trillion dollars in the Afghanistan war, combating the Taliban. But to no avail. Things have gone haywire, clearly. After two decades of confronting the Taliban, the US army along with NATO forces has decided to leave the country. Needless to say, the amount spent in Afghanistan is going to pinch every American. The mammoth interest rates will continue to climb given how the modern debt structure functions.

The two trillion dollar bill includes the direct funding cost of $800 billion and $83 billion to train the Afghan army. The rest of the amount was spent on development projects, such as building bases, roads, etc.

America spent more than the combined net worth of Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, and the 30 other American richest billionaires.

According to the estimates of the Costs of War Project at Brown University, the interest rate will climb up to $6.5 trillion by 2050, which translates to $20,000 for each and every US citizen. These numbers are frightening, clearly.

Besides, the US army lost its 2448 service members, according to the university report. As many as 4000 civilian contractors lost their lives. Around 66,000 Afghan army personnel were killed. The number of civilians killed is 47,245. The Taliban fighters killed stand at 51,191.

In addition to what was spent in the war, the United States invested in infra sectors too including healthcare. 

There’s no denying that the protective umbrella of the US presence played a vital role in favor of its allies, but the country ended up troubling its own citizens. It’s estimated that every US citizen is burdened with $20K war debt.

 

Even though the retail giants are reporting positive numbers, the retail sector is yet to recover from COVID

Retail giants ITC Ltd and Hindustan Unilever have recently revealed their Q1 FY22 numbers, and it seems promising. Even though the numbers are good, it, however, did not reward the share prices. When compared to the previous year’s numbers, HUL has managed to increase its profits by 9.5 percent (1,881 crores). Retail giant ITC has taken a huge leap and has reported a 28.6 percent rise in standalone profit (3,013.5 crores) for q1 of 2021. In the corresponding year of the previous cycle, ITC had reported Rs 2,342 crore as standalone profit.

Even though June month was severely affected by the second wave of COVID, both the retail giants managed to deliver good numbers in profit. Only a handful of companies have managed to show profits in this q1, and there are more than 50 percent of retailers who are yet to reach the pre-pandemic level in terms of profit. Data from RAI suggests that the profits of June month fell severely, and it showed that sales were down by 50 percent when compared to 2019 June. CEO of RAI, Kumar Rajagopalan, has stated that retail businesses are finding it very difficult to bounce back, and pan-Indian retail sales came down by 50 percent.