blow, losing an estimated $72 billion of productive output.
Howard Chernick, a professor of economics at Hunter College who has devoted extensive study to the impact of 9/11, tells Newsmax the amount of offi ce space damaged or destroyed in the attack was larger than the total offi ce space available in most cities. “But because New York is so large,” he says, “it was a pretty small part of the total amount of what you could think of as the ‘manufacturing capacity,’ of New York — except what we manufacture are services.
“Because it was localized, a lot of businesses that had several places of operation were able to shift employ- ees to those other operations. That kept production going in the city without as much disruption.” It is a tribute to the spirit of New York City that there was never a doubt whether the city would rebuild. The only questions: when and how. Even as fi rst responders were sur- veying the carnage at the site of the attacks in New York City, and at the Pentagon in Arlington, Va., as well as in the fi eld near Shanksville, Pa. where United fl ight 93 had been brought down, the United States was
gearing up for war. According to a study by Brown University, the wars in the Middle East that followed the 9/11 attacks have cost the nation $2.8 trillion. But one startling mea- sure of the long-term impact of war is refl ected in the fact that caring for veterans through 2050 alone is expected to cost $3.7 trillion. Another huge impact on the U.S. economy stemmed from the mas- sive reorganization of U.S. homeland security. The budget increases for the various departments crammed into the new federal leviathan have increased by a collective $246.6 bil- lion since 9/11 — and that’s after adjusting for infl ation. But some economists say the actual fi gure may be more than twice that amount. According to a review of various reports, the total economic cost of 9/11, including immediate damage and clean
up, economic impact,
replacing damaged buildings and infrastructure, enhanced security, compensation to the victims and fi rst-responders, and associated mili- tary costs: $7.33 trillion. There are two fl aws with such cal- culations, however. First, no account- ing method can measure the loss in a child’s heart when a father or
9/11 HEROES • by Ken George, NYC DOT
AS I WAS WALKING TO GROUND ZERO, THERE WERE A lot of civilians in the streets. They were giving me pictures of their family members, telling me, “Help me fi nd them.” I took all the pictures I could grab and put them inside my helmet. I went to work on search and rescue. I remember seeing body parts and a makeshift morgue. I was searching through the crevasses to see if I could hear or if I could fi nd anybody alive. I was on the pile of rubble and there was this smoke that came out of the ground and cut all the air off.
I was never trained for any of the stuff I saw down there. The stuff I saw the days I was at ground zero, a cop or fi reman didn’t see in 30 years on the job. When I went down there, it was like it was snowing. Ash was pouring down, and my eyes were burning. The fl ames and the smoke — it looked like you were in hell, pure hell. I remember walking the streets of Manhattan when I was on search — everything was quiet. There were no lights working; there was nothing — just dust and debris. It was devastating. I had never seen anything like it. There were a lot of friends that I went to school with that perished in
mother never comes back home. The other objection that even a fi rst-year accounting major would offer is the simple fact that there are always two sides of any ledger. Buildings that cost $22 billion when they fall, also provide jobs for hordes of architects, contractors, and construction work- ers when they are resurrected. “That’s the paradoxical way in which we measure economic out- put,” Chernick says.
“A disaster
in some ways can be good for the GDP and the local economy. You’re rebuilding buildings that were dam- aged and destroyed, so you’re hiring construction workers and all the ser- vices that go with that. If you need more public safety offi cers for secu- rity, you’re hiring them. And all that has a multiplier effect.”
That is especially the case when the federal government pours a bankload of cash into a city, as hap- pened in New York and Washington, D.C., after 9/11.
In fact, analysts say the new and rebuilt structures are stronger and operate more effi ciently than the buildings they replaced. But none of that will change the empty feeling of gazing at a skyline that will never be the same.
that building, too. A lot of them. I developed the cough — the 9/11 cough. I went to the doctor, and he said I had bronchitis and asthma and my health just went downhill. I had a heart attack at 42 because of the steroids and the toxins and all the stress I was dealing with. And then in 2004, I was diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder for all the stuff I saw and witnessed. I was forced to retire. But you know, I’m glad I was there, because I hope I brought closure to some family members.
aling agnosed
George and granddaughter Giovanna
Another thing: When they mention the people that were down there and the people that died in the buildings and the people that died in the planes and stuff like that, they forget the more than 900 responders who have died from their illnesses. Eventually, over the next couple of years, they are going to exceed the people who died in those buildings.
SEPTEMBER 2011 / NEWSMAX / 9|11: A DECADE LATER 87
DENNIS CLARK
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