How much would the wall on the border really cost to build?

SOURCE: Know Your Meme

The economic principle I’m exploring is that all choices have an opportunity cost.

My research question to help me study the economic principle is “How much would the wall really cost to build?”

The article published in American Greatness titled “Do The Math: Trump’s Wall is $25 billion, Illegals Cost $165 Billion” demonstrates this economic principle by showing the cost of the actual wall, the cost of maintenance after it is built, and the cost of the illegal immigrants once they are here. 

First, many people are upset by the high price of the wall. They hear the numbers and are astonished by the fact that anyone would be for building the wall. Those numbers being $8.7 billion for the concrete, $3.6 billion for steel, $12.3 for labor, and $200 million for the land. Added up, it would be about $25 billion.

Another factor that weighs into the cost of the wall is the maintenance after it is built. Studies predict different ranges of prices, which vary from $150-$750 million a year. Average, that is about $450 million every year. Although this does seem like a lot of money, considering that we are paying $25 billion to build it, it is not as much as you would think.

Finally, the price that makes puts the building of the wall into perspective is the price of the immigrants each year. Annually, the cost of illegal immigrants and their children is $135 billion. The taxpayers pay $116 billion of it. So, paying $135 billion a year is already over $100 billion more than the wall itself and more than $100 billion more per year.

In my next blog post I will research the question: How would building the wall affect the economy?