For the price of the Iraq War, we could've bought everybody in Akron, Ohio a group of nine properties worth as much as John McCain's nine houses and condominiums.
Akron, Ohio has 207,934 residents. As of March 18, 2008, the McCain family owned nine dwellings -- two condos in Arizona, three beachfront condos in California, three ranches in Arizona, and a high-rise condo in Virginia. (This does not include their rental property. In addition, estimates of the total number of homes on their Arizona ranches run from four to six.) These nine properties were valued at a total of $13,123,269. Buying everybody in Akron a series of properties worth this much money would cost $2.73 trillion, which is less than Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes' estimate of $3 trillion for the cost of the Iraq War.
