9/11 Insignificant?

[DanS]

In DC, the attacks were devastating. A whole airport shut down completely for months, only to be reopened for partial traffic. This airport does $10-15 billion in business each year and is a major through point for US Air's DC<->NYC shuttle. Hotels and cabbies were crippled for at least a month afterward.

After the attack, downtown DC was shut down. Each workday lost means about $1 billion.

While not strictly 9/11-related, it appears to me that the anthrax scare was a sympathy play. The entire DC mail delivery system was screwed up for a couple of months. Weeks went by with no mail delivered.

DC will have spent several hundreds of millions of dollars extra on security post-9/11.

All of this sucks hard. I would be happy to get out of this with only a $100 billion scratch. But it doesn't look like that would anywhere near cover it.

[Rogan Josh]

Originally posted by WhiteElephants
Yeah, sort of like the way the world ignored that whole Nazi thing that happend way back when, what was it that happend again...?

You are comparing the WTC to the Holocaust?????

****ing moron!

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by Rogan Josh
You are comparing the WTC to the Holocaust?????

****ing moron!

I realize that the comparison is fallacious. After all, Europeans at the time actually cared about the 9/11 attacks.

[red_jon]

Originally posted by WhiteElephants


Yeah, sort of like the way the world ignored that whole Nazi thing that happend way back when, what was it that happend again...? Or those damnable soccer holligans who did what? And what of that silly Berlin Wall episode, I can't quite remember, lets see... Not to mention that incident in the former Chech Repulic that the world largely ignored.

Do all Euros feel this sorry for themselves?

"quite so pulicised", HA!

Oh dear, silly illerate learnt to type but not to develop a brain. Does the Average American know who the current French president is? German chancellor? Do you honestly think the attacks would have been quite so much coverage had the attacks been in Cologne?

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by red_jon
Does the Average American know who the current French president is?

Do you know who the President Pro Tempore of the US Senate is?

Why should we care who holds such a position of such little power within his own government?

German chancellor?

Gerhard Schroder.

Do you honestly think the attacks would have been quite so much coverage had the attacks been in Cologne?

Why wouldn't they be?

[Imran Siddiqui]

Does the Average American know who the current French president is? German chancellor? Do you honestly think the attacks would have been quite so much coverage had the attacks been in Cologne?

Chirac, Schroeder, and if it hit the Reichstag (the new one) in Berlin, perhaps it would have.

[red_jon]

*claps at the clever people who answered my rhetorical question, missing the point in that they are not average Americans*

[Dr. Nick]

Originally posted by Osweld


In the grand scheme of things, everything is insignificant.

*Butterfly in Equador flaps its wings*

*Africa sinks into the ocean*

[markusf]

Originally posted by rah
"As for the claim that the attack cost over 100 billion? Thats just a load of BS, the airlines etc where all doing horrible before 9/11 with a few of the major ones already having declared bankruptcy. Most industries where just looking for a bailout"

We will never know the total cost. The ripple effect in the US was quite great. I went to Las Vegas in early November. We discussed the effect with quite a few dealers during the endless hours we spent at the tables. Most of them had only been called in for 3 days or less a week after 9/11. (the norm prior was 4-6 days a week) The hotel we were staying at was operating at less than 50% capacity when the norm is closer to 85%. This was a full two months after and one of their normal peaks. People were saying it was just starting to turn back up again. A lot of the people that canceled or didn't book were foreigners. That money is never going to be recooped. If Vegas ran at 66% of the norm for two months the cost was estimated at over 1 billion dollars. Most Companies cancel all business travel. And some still haven't resumed. The impact on Hotels, Resturants, Convention centers, taxis/limos, hookers, etc.

This doesn't even consider those companies that were literally destroyed in the collapse. The infrastructure damage, The cost of the cleanup. The overtime hours paid to workers.

The ripples keep spreading farther.

So even though the I agree that the airlines were already in trouble, this just made things worse.

I really don't think 100 billion was an Exaggeration and in the long run may be kinda low.

I guess you have to live here and actually open your eyes to see just how much was impacted from a monetary standpoint.

RAH

ya ya. I live across the border barely.. Anyways i still think those numbers are meaningless. how many people do you know that spend every dime they have as soon as they get a paycheque? So they where prevented from spending money for a few days, or they shifted thier spending habits. There was a big cry here in BC that tourism revenue was going to be waaaay down, turned out it plunged in september, but still ended up 20% for the year with record numbers in november, december etc. Point is people started traveling closer to home, and used the money they would normally spend on travel to other things. The problem with economics is i can make any old pie chart i want, some cenus data and then get infront of a camera and make millions of "sheep" believe what i say. I don't think anyone realizes just how much 100 billion is. Thats $500US for every man women and child living in the states. Now add in the supposid cost for the war (another 100 billion). That makes the loss $1000 US for every man women and child. (assuming the pop is 200 million) now lets say one in 4 people actually work thats an average of $4000 US per working tax payer... The average american salary is $20,000.... uhm those numbers being thrown around just don't add up.

[Dr. Nick]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui
and if it hit the Reichstag

You mean they're an empire again?!

BUNDEStag, Imran, BUNDEStag...

[poison_flower]

Originally posted by markusf
I don't think anyone realizes just how much 100 billion is. Thats $500US for every man women and child living in the states. Now add in the supposid cost for the war (another 100 billion). That makes the loss $1000 US for every man women and child. (assuming the pop is 200 million) now lets say one in 4 people actually work thats an average of $4000 US per working tax payer... The average american salary is $20,000.... uhm those numbers being thrown around just don't add up.

Your formula doesn't consider damage to existing structures... or tax money spent during the stall period after the attacks.

[Sprayber]

[DanS]

marcusf: is this a word question? ~3/4 of Americans work, so that $200 billion (or whatever) is about $1,000/working person.

Yes, I can see how it would be $1,000/working person over the period of a couple of years.

"The average american salary is $20,000"

Don't know where you get this figure.

[markusf]

Originally posted by poison_flower


Your formula doesn't consider damage to existing structures... or tax money spent during the stall period after the attacks.

ya i know it gets even crazier then, which makes me think most of those numbers are super fake.. Do people really believe that destroying 2 buildings in the states would cost 50% of the earnings of the average working family in the US ? So if terrorists blow up 30 buildings the US goes bankrupt ???? Canadas economy is 80% cross border trade with the US... When there where big handouts in the US there where none in canada, even though it had the exact same effect here. I think the vast majority of these "estimates" etc are just numbers being used to mask the recession which started close to a year ago.

If some terrorist group blew up the CN tower in canada and we use the numbers tossed around in the states canada's national debt would nearly double and canada's credit rating would be gone and it would basically become a 2-3rd world country.

[DanS]

"would cost 50% of the earnings of the average working family in the US ?"

Where do you find these figures, you ditz!