For the price of the Iraq War, we could buy everyone who voted for Barack Obama a hot air balloon from which to watch his inauguration from the sky.According to current estimates, Obama received 68,953,645 votes in the 2008 Presidential election. A new, commercially made hot air balloon costs $20,000 to $30,000. Buying everyone who voted for Obama a hot air balloon from the top end of that price range would cost $2.07 trillion, or $930 billion less than Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes' estimate of $3 trillion for the total cost of the Iraq War.
Image used under a Creative Commons license from a4gpa.
