For the price of the Iraq War, we could've bought a bottle of Jameson's Irish whiskey for every human who ever lived.
The Population Reference Bureau estimates the total number of people who have ever lived at 106 billion. (Updated versions of Keyfitz' calculation gave an estimate of 96 billion in 2000.) A fifth of Jameson's Irish Whiskey costs $23. At this price we could supply each of the humans who ever lived with a bottle of whiskey for $2.44 trillion, which is less than Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes' estimate of $3 trillion for the cost of the Iraq War.
Image adapted under a Creative Commons License from petar_c.
Image adapted under a Creative Commons License from petar_c.
