Sunday, September 7, 2008

Buy a platinum vibrator studded with diamonds for each woman in Europe and the Americas


For the price of the Iraq War, we could've bought a platinum vibrator studded with diamonds for each woman in Europe and the Americas.  

731 million people live in Europe, 524 million live in North America, and 382 million people live in South America.  Assuming that half of these people are women, there are 819 million women on these three continents combined.  

JimmyJane sells the Little Platinum Eternity vibrator, plated in platinum and encircled by 28 conflict-free VS1 diamonds, for $3,250.  Buying 819 million of these vibrators would cost $2.66 trillion, which is less than Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes' estimate of $3 trillion for the cost of the Iraq War.