Give every human two iPhones

For the price of the Iraq War, we could give every human being two iPhones.  

There are 6.7 billion human beings.  The iPhone costs $199.  So giving every human being two iPhones would cost $2.67 trillion, which is less than Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes' estimate of $3 trillion for the cost of the Iraq War. 

Image used under a Creative Commons License from vernhart.  See what else you could buy with the money we spent on the war! 

Desalinize enough seawater so all Africans could drink safely until 10,000 AD

For the price of the Iraq War, we could've desalinized enough seawater to provide all Africans with safe drinking water for the next 7,992 years.

Currently, the majority of the 922 million people in Africa do not have safe drinking water. Drinking 2 L of water per day is sufficient to replenish bodily fluids. So providing Africans with their annual intake of water would require 673 billion liters.

Singaporean desalinization technologies produce 1 cubic meter of fresh water for $0.49. At this price, supplying all Africans with clean drinking water until the year 10,000 AD would cost $2.63 trillion, which is less than Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes' estimate of $3 trillion for the cost of the Iraq War.

Send all the Israelis and Palestinians to Harvard

For the price of the Iraq War, we could've sent every man, woman, and child living in Israel and Palestine to Harvard for four years.

There are 7.3 million people living in Israel, and 3.8 million people living in the Palestinian territories.  The total cost of attending Harvard for one year is $52,650.  That would put the cost of a four-year Harvard undergraduate degree for all Israelis and Palestinians at $2.3 trillion, which is less than Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes' estimate of over $3 trillion for the cost of the Iraq War.

One laptop per child, adult, sheep, pig, and cow

For the price of the Iraq War, we could've not only fully funded One Laptop Per Child, but expanded its mandate to cover all humans, sheep, pigs, and cows.

There are about six billion humans, 1 billion sheep, 1 billion pigs, and 1.3 billion cows on earth. OLPC is producing laptops at $175 each. Giving these 9.3 billion organisms their own laptops would cost 1.63 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 hthg1983.

Fuel a motorbike to go as far as Iota Piscium

For the price of the Iraq War, we could fuel a motorbike to travel as far as Iota Piscium.  

Iota Piscium is a yellowish dwarf star within the constellation Pisces.  It's 45 light-years or 265 trillion miles from the Earth.  While slightly larger than the Sun, it's small enough that it may have Earth-like planets.  

The Honda Super Cub, the top-selling motorcycle in the world, gets 340 miles per gallon.  To travel 45 light-years, the Honda Super Cub would require 779 billion gallons of gas.  In Austin, Texas, gasoline currently costs $3.48 per gallon at the Chevron station at the intersection of Manchaca and Davis Street.  If all the fuel was purchased at these prices, fuel costs to go a distance as far as Iota Piscium would be $2.7 trillion, which is less than Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes' estimate of over $3 trillion for the cost of the Iraq War.

Image adapted under a Creative Commons License from joelf.  

Send everybody from South Ossetia into space

For the price of the Iraq War, we could've sent the entire population of South Ossetia into space.

South Ossetia is the region at the center of the conflict between Russia and Georgia. In 2000, it had 70,000 residents. Recently, many refugees have fled to North Ossetia or other places as a result of war.

Anousheh Ansari, the world's first female space tourist, paid $25 million to go to space for eight days. At that price, sending the entire population of South Ossetia into space would cost $1.75 trillion, which is less than Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes' estimate of over $3 trillion for the cost of the Iraq War.  

Reward all Afghans and Pakistanis with 15x their income for helping us capture Osama

For the price of the Iraq War, we could've rewarded every Afghan and Pakistani with fifteen times their income if people from either nation helped us capture Osama Bin Laden.  

Pakistan has 165 million residents, and its annual per capita income is $1027.  Afghanistan has 32 million residents, and its annual per capita income is $335.  Rewarding the entire population of both countries with fifteen times their income for information leading to the capture of Osama Bin Laden would cost $2.70 trillion, which is less than Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes' estimate of over $3 trillion for the cost of the Iraq War.  

Buy enough Fruit By The Foot to reach Pluto

For the price of the Iraq War, we could've bought enough Fruit By The Foot to reach Pluto.

Pluto's orbit averages 39.48 times the distance between the Earth and the Sun. The distance between the Earth and the Sun is 93 million miles. So the distance between the Earth and Pluto's orbit when Pluto is at its average distance from the Sun, and in the same direction from the Sun as the Earth, is 3.6 billion miles.

A case of Fruit By The Foot contains a total of 72 snacks, each of which extends to 3 feet when unrolled. Spanning the distance from Earth to Pluto would require 87 billion cases of Fruit By The Foot. Since each case of Fruit By The Foot can be purchased for $30, the total cost for reaching Pluto is $2.6 trillion, which is less than Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes' estimate of $3 trillion for the cost of the Iraq War.

Lift all humans, pigs, and sheep into the air with helium

For the price of the Iraq War, we could have purchased enough crude helium to lift all humans, pigs, and sheep into the air.

There are 6.6 billion humans on the earth. If the average human weighs 150 lbs (likely to be an overestimation, as many humans are children), the total mass of all humans is 1 trillion lbs. There are about 1 billion sheep, which weigh roughly the same as humans, for a total sheep weight of 150 billion lbs. There are about 1 billion pigs, which weigh around 250 lbs as adults, for a total pig weight of at most 250 billion lbs.

If purchased directly from the Bureau of Land Management, helium costs $60 per thousand cubic feet this year. A thousand cubic feet of helium lifts 28.2 kilograms or 62 pounds, so the cost to lift one pound with helium is about $1. Lifting all humans, pigs, and sheep would then cost $1.4 trillion, which is less than Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes' estimate of over $3 trillion for the cost of the Iraq War.

Image adapted under a Creative Commons License from Sam the Sham.

Buy everybody in Orlando their own A-10 Thunderbolt

For the price of the Iraq War, we could've bought each resident of Orlando, Florida, their own military attack aircraft.

The population of Orlando is 227,907. The heavily armored A-10 Thunderbolt, used by the Air Force against tanks and other ground targets, costs $11.7 million. Equipping each resident of Orlando with their own A-10 Thunderbolt would cost $2.67 trillion, which is less than Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes' estimate of over $3 trillion for the cost of the Iraq War.

Build a bridge to the moon out of MacBooks

For the price of the Iraq War, we could've bought enough MacBooks for a bridge to the moon 2 MacBooks wide. (Then we could take them down and give eight of them to each American, and one to each Canadian.)

The moon is about 380,000,000 m from the surface of the earth. A MacBook is .325 meters long, so it would take 2.34 billion of them to reach the moon if laid end to end in two rows. At $1099 each, that would cost us $2.57 trillion, which is less than Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes' estimate of $3 trillion for the cost of the Iraq War.

Image used under a Creative Commons license from Jeronimo Palacios.

Supply the Irish with beer for a millennium

For the price of the Iraq War, we could've supplied the Irish with beer for a thousand years.

Kirin estimates Irish beer consumption at 521 million liters per year, second in the world on a per capita basis. At this rate the Irish would drink 521 billion liters of beer per millennium. A twelve-pack of 330 ml Guinness bottles costs $16, and contains 4 liters of beer. At these prices we could provide the Irish with a millennium's worth of beer for $2.084 trillion, which is less than Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes' estimate of $3 trillion for the cost of the Iraq War.

Image used under a Creative Commons license from Voss.