Sunday, November 30, 2008

Make each panda the CEO of its own regional airline

For the price of the Iraq War, we could've made each of the world's pandas the CEO of its own regional airline.

Using the highest estimates, there are 3000 giant pandas in the wild, and 266 in captivity. The average regional airline is worth $465 million. Making each panda the CEO of its own regional airline would cost $1.52 trillion, or $1.48 trillion less than Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes' estimate of $3 trillion for the total cost of the Iraq War.