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July 14, 2006
Dollar diplomacy
According to the Congressional Budget Office, the U.S. has spent approximately $300 billion dollars on the Iraq war so far, bringing new truth to the old adage that "money doesn't buy happiness." What could we have accomplished if we'd spent that money at home? Here are some figures:
1. We could've bought 7,500,000 2004 Corvettes at $40,000 each. Suddenly, Toyota wouldn't be feeling so hot, would they?
2. We could've purchased 25,000,000,000 copies of Ronald Reagan's film, "Bedtime for Bonzo," at $12 each. Since there are only about 6,000,000,000 people on the planet, every new generation could get a copy to remember him by - big plus for the GOP!
3. We could have sent 60,000,000,000 people a complimentary "Big Mouth Billy Bass," the singing fish mounted to a plastic display plaque, at a meager $5 a pop on eBay. Imagine the laughter! They'd cheer, "America! America!"
4. 15,000,000,000 1-year subscriptions to "Playboy" magazine would give adolescents the world over something to hide under their mattresses. At only $20, it might even help some fundamentalists lighten up (alternately, we can also supply "Playgirl").
There you have it. The answer to the question, "War - what is it good for?" seems to be, "Much less than it ends up costing us."
Posted by Greg Sidor at July 14, 2006 02:48 AM