If I had unlimited funds at my disposal, how much would it cost me to purchase the 50 states? Lock, stock and barrel; every house, road, DVD player, wedding ring, web site, Ft. Knox … everything. The nukes, patents, NFL teams, museums, real estate, cigarette lighters … everything. How much?
I’m assuming no one holds out for more money for sentimental reasons or whatever, but accepts actual value at market rates.
How much?
Wouldn’t it be the GDP, which is about $10 trillion USD? 
It is a basic tenet of economics that all the money in the world can buy every good in the world. A rough extension of this might be that all American financial assets could buy all American goods. In 2006, the M2 money supply–the total of all currency in circulation and all money on checking and investment accounts, was $7.02 trillion.
Of course, you’d also have to pay off all debt the U.S. holds, and as of now that’s over 8.8 trillion. I’m no economist, but I do not believe government bonds count toward M2, so the tab grows to $16 trillion. Quite a lot to dig out from your couch cushions, but still a bargain IMHO.
There are a lot of assumptions in this estimate that I don’t necessarily think are warranted, but I’d say $16 trillion is a start…
GDP is one year’s worth of output.
I forgot to include oil deposits, unmined gold, silver and whatever else I forgot. Shale oil?
By my calculations, $7 trillion for the US works out to be around $2900/acre. That seems rather low for just the raw land, never mind all the timber, buildings, roads, autos, wristwatches, etc.
Are you sure? I’ve never heard this before and it seems pretty unlikely on the surface.
By my calculations, $7 trillion for the US works out to be around $2900/acre. That seems rather low for just the raw land, never mind all the timber, buildings, roads, autos, wristwatches, etc.
That’s the crux of my OP. What is everything worth? Everything.
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Nobody knows. Nobody can ever know. It’s a meaningless question.
Value is established only when a buyer makes an offer or when a price is put on an object to save it from a buyer or destruction. Without a buyer, value has no meaning.
What’s the value of every object in your home? Is it the price that the individual objects would fetch on eBay? The value of your insurance? How much would you pay to save your family photos from destruction?
What’s the value of all government buildings? Of all churches? Universities and schools? What’s the value of national forest? Do you value a piece of property by what the last person paid or by what it could fetch in the future?
What happen to value when things are bought in bulk? If you sold everything, does that drive the price down?
This also means that CJJ’s* statement that "It is a basic tenet of economics that all the money in the world can buy every good in the world. " is wrong. The mistake here is trying to extrapolate from an idealized isolated economic environment in which everything is for sale to the real world in which many things, perhaps most things, are not for sale. It also posits that everything would be sold simultaneously. If not, then the amount that goods could sell for could cumulatively be many times the total value of all the money in the world.
Sorry, even as a thought experiment the notion of selling everything in the U.S. runs into insuperable difficulties. Some things are priceless not because they have no value but because there are no realistic buyers for them. The value of the White House is zero. Or an impossibly huge amount. And there’s no way to tell the difference.
One MILLION Dollars ::raises pinky to lips::
Seriously though, this seems like a fun thought experiment but I dont see how this would end up getting a factual answer. I would like to hear more about the “all the assetts in the US could buy everything in the US” thingy. It makes sense in my gut but I cant figure it out in my head.
I disagree. I can see where it would never work in the real world, but as a theoretical matter, the entire United States has a “book value”. Most of the property in this country was purchased at some point, so it’s possible to set an estimated fair market value on it. The few exceptions like the White House or Yellowstone Park can be realistically approximated.
Hey Exapno, did you miss this sentence in the OP?
I remember back in the 70s some comedian was going to run for parliament in Australia with that as his platform - sell Australia to China for $1,000,000 per person and we all retire and move overseas to places where the cost of living is lower.
The problem is not sentimentality, it’s that the “market price” changes as a buyer starts to purchase everything. A 100 acres of prairie land may cost $100,000 today, but the last available 100 acres of prairie land will be much more.
The more clear question is “what is the current total book value of the US” and leave out the part about actually buying it.
You might start with net worth of household/families, which in 2004 was $448,000 per “family” (household). Bill Gates and Warren Buffet skew this, of course, which is why YMMV from this figure.
The US Census bureau gives about 3 people per household, so conservatively if you cashed out US citizens, you’d be north of 25 trillion. Then you have to cash out all foreign holdings–north of 3 Trillion just in publicly traded companies. http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2006/63553.htm Of course this will be offset by US citizens with some of their $448k in foreign holdings…
You have to cash out the US debt. $9 trillion.
Last, you have to buy all publicly-owned land and assets at market value. Priceless? I’m not sure. But certainly pricey. Consider what Central Park in New York would be worth. The Federal government alone owns 650 million acres of land, and 400,000 buildings. Some of that is only good for nuclear waste storage but plenty of it is in prime locations–25% of Washington DC, for example. http://www.house.gov/hensarling/rsc/doc/Federal_Land_Ownership_05012005.pdf State and local governments aren’t doing too bad either.
Sorry; I’m quitting the calculation at this point. It’s a beautiful day and I’m off for my geezer walk. I am going to start saving immediately to try and pull off the purchase. I will let you know how much it was when I’m done but it may take me weeks to save up enough.
Since in the real world, those exceptions are not subject to market forces, how does anyone know your approximation is realistic?
The rest of your post is well-taken, though.
[hijack] Someone once told me Harrison Ford was trying to buy all the land in Montana and that he had bought so much, people there wouldn’t sell to him anymore [/hijack]
Perhaps you’re thinking of Ted Turner. He reportedly owns 2600 square miles of land – making him the largest private land owner in the US.
Brownsfan, please contact me ASAP. I’m very interested in selling you all the stuff in my house for a low low price. 
If a question is meaningless, putting in meaningless qualifiers doesn’t change it any.
There’s a real lesson to be learned here about value in economics. If we’re trying to dispel ignorance that’s the point to concentrate on.
