Saturday, November 15, 2008

Buy Hillary a Toyota Camry for every second of the average Secretary of State's term

For the price of the Iraq War, we could buy Hillary Clinton a Toyota Camry for every second of the average US Secretary of State's term.

Rumors are circulating that Hillary Clinton will serve as Secretary of State for Barack Obama, a position that has far less job security than her current position as a Senator from reliably Democratic New York.  There have been 67 Secretaries of State in our nation's history, with each one serving an average of 3.22 years or about 102 million seconds.  The base price for a new Toyota Camry is $19,145.  At these prices, giving Hillary a Camry for every second of the average Secretary of State's term would cost $1.95 trillion, or $1.05 trillion less than Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes' estimate for the total cost of the Iraq War.