Saturday, November 22, 2008

Fund the Lizard People's Senate campaigns for the next ten thousand years

For the price of the Iraq War, we could fund the Lizard People's Senate campaigns for the next thousand years.

The Minnesota Senate race was the most expensive race of this year, with the candidates together spending $32.3 million. On one of the challenged ballots that has come to light in the recount, a voter had written in 'Lizard People' for several offices including the Senate. Assuming that half the total Minnesota expenditures are sufficient to make a candidate competitive, we would need to spend $16.15 million every six years to fund one of the Lizard People's campaigns for each seat. At that rate, we could fund the Lizard People's campaigns for each seat for ten thousand years at a cost of $2.69 trillion, which is $310 billion less than Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes' estimate of $3 trillion for the total cost of the Iraq War.

Thanks to Stentor Danielson for sending in this suggestion, and Blar for a correction.