Osama and GDP

At the expense of the few thousand people who died seven years ago today, I was thinking of how much U.S. GDP Osama generated as a result of terrorism.

Arguably without 9/11 we wouldn't be involved in these two wars. Each war contributes mightily to our economy -- military hardware, uniforms, MRAPS, transportation, small arms, ordinance -- all these are manufactured here in the US and employ thousands of Americans.

Then consider all the jobs he helped create within homeland security. Probably a few thousand, at least. That's just direct jobs -- many more jobs were secured in the building of bomb-sniffing machines, anti-ram pillars around buildings, and guard dog trainers. In fact, every job created for the building of the new Folsom bridge across the American river can be directly attributed to Bin Laden. If he hadn't attacked, the Folsom Dam road would still be open to traffic and the new bridge wouldn't be needed. Folsom Dam road is permanently closed to traffic due to 'fear.'

I will take this a step further. Here at SMUD we are going to build a new energy control center out in the hinterlands along with a new corporate yard that will house our fleets of service vehicles. We are moving our energy operations office because "we cite a safety concern having our building close to light-rail and close to the intersection of S and 59th streets."

Without 9/11, we wouldn't be so fucking fearful. We would never have had to consider that our operations center, located in the same place for the past forty five years, is now, suddenly, unsafe. I attribute every new job created in the building of our new fortified, bunkered, miles-from-anything control center to Bin Laden...and every additional mile driven by employees to get to this new center adds GDP by way of vehicle manufacturers and road builders.

Take away the 25+ remaining years of productivity from the 3,000+ people who died on 9/11, but adding up the thousands and thousands of jobs created since, and all the jobs yet to be created, you'll surely find Bin Laden was a boost to the American economy.