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The government shut down over a discrete dollar amount: $5.3 billion. That was the amount that Trump demanded for his border wall, which the Democrats refused. No one is naive enough to think that the shutdown was really about the money––it wasn’t about saving 5.3 billion bucks. Once the estimates of the cost of the shutdown began to outweigh the cost of the wall, that became patently obvious. Rather, the shutdown was about political brinksmanship, ideology, and most of all, winning.

It’s fairly clear by now that in this particular game of chicken, Trump lost and Pelosi won––Trump’s loss was so significant, in fact, that it reverberated all the way through the Republican Party. The cost of the shutdown to Trump is therefore fairly clear: he lost major political clout. It cost him the undivided loyalty of the Republican party. It cost him the support of his base. Time will tell how much more it will cost him––potentially the 2020 election.

As the dust settles, we might speculate about the other costs of this shutdown. The first, and most obvious, is the financial cost. Unfortunately, it’s a staggering $11 billion. That estimates includes not only economic slowdown caused by federal workers’ lack of income (and therefore spending), but also the businesses that those workers patronized, as well as the economic impact of slowed or lost government services.  Some of that financial loss can return. But, as Vox points out, up to $3 billion dollars has vanished from the economy, never to return.

The financial burden was felt more by individuals and private businesses. The cost of the shutdown cannot only be measured in money, but also in morale. The thousands of mothers and fathers who were unable to provide for their children, or who lost sleep worrying about how they would do so, suffered as a result of this shutdown.

That suffering radiates outward, and makes us wonder about yet another cost: what did this shutdown mean for our faith in our country? Faith in Trump’s approval rating are down––even about the one thing that his followers supported him on: the economy. News outlets like Bloomberg are beginning to point out that the economy under Trump is actually growing slower than all but one of the presidents in the last forty years. The impact of a nation’s loss of faith in its leader is immeasurable, and we shall only even be able to speculate about it in twenty years or more. It’s nevertheless an important thing to consider.

There are still other costs. Remember how poorly the national parks fared during the shutdown? The damage done during that time is permanent. A former park supervisor has said that Joshua Tree make take three centuries to recover from the off-roading, vandalism, and littering. That means, in 200 years time, Americans (if there still is an America) will visit that park and see traces of the 34-day shutdown. This is the legacy that we have left to our descendants.

This is the tip of the iceberg when it comes to assessing the true costs of the shutdown. If you have other ideas, please leave them in the comments.

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