For the price of the Iraq War, we could've supplied the Irish with beer for a thousand years.
Kirin estimates Irish beer consumption at 521 million liters per year, second in the world on a per capita basis. At this rate the Irish would drink 521 billion liters of beer per millennium. A twelve-pack of 330 ml Guinness bottles costs $16, and contains 4 liters of beer. At these prices we could provide the Irish with a millennium's worth of beer for $2.084 trillion, which is less than Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes' estimate of $3 trillion for the cost of the Iraq War.
Image used under a Creative Commons license from Voss.
