It's Not All Doom & Gloom

Is the hideous, cringeworthy spectacle of the American presidential race-to-the-bottom getting you down? On a more personal level, are you struggling just to make ends meet? Want something to cheer you up? Try this:

"As of August 2016, the US has already appropriated, spent, or taken on obligations to spend more than $3.6 trillion in current dollars on the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Syria and on Homeland Security (2001 through fiscal year 2016). To this total should be added the approximately $65 billion in dedicated war spending the Department of Defense and State Department have requested for the next fiscal year, 2017, along with an additional nearly $32 billion requested for the Department of Homeland Security in 2017, and estimated spending on veterans in future years. When those are included, the total US budgetary cost of the wars reaches $4.79 trillion." (From: US Budgetary Costs of Wars through 2016: $4.79 Trillion & Counting: Summary Costs of the US Wars in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan and Pakistan and Homeland Security, Neta C. Crawford, Boston University, September 2016)