this post was submitted on 16 Jun 2026
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Plus the purely immediate financial cost of the war itself which I've seen estimated at around 25 billion.
And I don't know how to estimate the human cost.
Human cost shouldn't be too tricky to guesstimate.
An average US person produces about $142k/year (85k in gdp, divided by 60 % of working age), killed with about 40 years of productive life left is about $5,6 million. Add to that the lowered productivity of the close relations due to grieving and change of circumstance, as well as societal loss of morale, and you're probably looking at a loss of production of just under $6 million/life. And fractions of that depending on disability for non dead casualties (e.g. PTSD or loss of limb might be 50% depending)
The Iranian equivalent is about $400k/life, or less as civilian casualties tend to be older than prime age soldiers.
Now calculating the US cost of loss of Iranian civilian lives would be more challenging (loss of standing, loss of morale, loss of legitimacy, and follow-on actions of instability and discontent).
I'm not sure you can really put a price on the loss of 175 school kids, plus all the other civilian deaths trumps bruised ego caused.
And that's not even counting the global losses incurred due to increased oil prices, reduced production, etc etc.
I mean, you evidently can, actuaries and the OBE do it all the time, and I even offered an example above.
Does it account for all of their existence - no, Is it useful to - only in a very narrow situation, is it possible - absolutely.
I'd argue the more horrible part is that some people do put a value to others' lives with even less thought than my example, which is why they're wont to bomb civilians for dubious gain.
It's easy to put a price, it's much harder to appreciate the value.