# Cost of Purchasing the US? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 13, 2007, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cost-of-purchasing-the-us/403890 "2007-05-13T02:04:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![The\_Controvert](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dec6dc/32.png) [@The\_Controvert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Controvert)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2007, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cost-of-purchasing-the-us/403890/21 "2007-05-13T17:09:25Z")
[QUOTE=Exapno Mapcase] 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. [/QUOTE] And yet, we’ve had questions about airplanes on treadmills… qualifiers didn’t stop Cecil from picking that question for some ignorance fightin’. Do you suppose there’s other interesting lessons here besides the one you chose? BTW, I read the assumptions of the OP as this: 1. Assume “unlimited funds” without nitpicking that this is impossible. 2. Assume people sell at reasonable prices (no “my photo album is worth $1 trillion”) 3. Assume people sell at “market rates”… take yesterday’s price so scarcity doesn’t skew everything. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2007, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cost-of-purchasing-the-us/403890/22 "2007-05-13T21:44:01Z")
Then go ahead and answer the question if you think it is answerable. Just explain how you’re going to do it. ---
**Author:** ![bbs2k](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e495f1/32.png) [@bbs2k](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bbs2k)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2007, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cost-of-purchasing-the-us/403890/23 "2007-05-13T22:33:23Z")
[QUOTE=Exapno Mapcase] Then go ahead and answer the question if you think it is answerable. Just explain how you’re going to do it. [/QUOTE] I’m with this guy. It’s an interesting question, but it seems absurd to try and generate a factual answer. Now if you’ll excuse me I’ll be hiding my MP3 player so it can’t be tallied. ---
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2007, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cost-of-purchasing-the-us/403890/24 "2007-05-13T23:34:43Z")
[QUOTE=don’t ask] 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. [/QUOTE] Wasn’t there a semi-serious plan to do something similar in Vietnam? Have the US (and possibly others) simply buy the communists out, as it would be cheaper than trying to shoot them out? ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2007, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cost-of-purchasing-the-us/403890/25 "2007-05-14T00:02:27Z")
[QUOTE=brownsfan] If I had unlimited funds at my disposal, how much would it cost me to purchase the 50 states? [/QUOTE] If you have to ask, you can’t afford them. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2007, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cost-of-purchasing-the-us/403890/26 "2007-05-14T00:06:42Z")
[QUOTE=TheLoadedDog] Wasn’t there a semi-serious plan to do something similar in Vietnam? Have the US (and possibly others) simply buy the communists out, as it would be cheaper than trying to shoot them out? [/QUOTE] Are you sure you’re not thinking of this column by Cecil? [Would Vietnam war money have been better spent bribing the enemy to stop fighting?](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_161.html) ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2007, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cost-of-purchasing-the-us/403890/27 "2007-05-14T00:55:27Z")
[QUOTE=don’t ask] 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. [/QUOTE] He’d better not try that now; the Chinese would probably take him up on it! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2007, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cost-of-purchasing-the-us/403890/28 "2007-05-14T00:59:51Z")
[QUOTE=Exapno Mapcase] If a question is meaningless, putting in meaningless qualifiers doesn’t change it any. [/QUOTE] The question is hypothetical. Hypothetical != meaningless. Nobody says or believes that the situation posited in the OP is realistically possible, but discussing hypothetical situations can help improve one’s understanding of an issue in a way that _is_ significant, or if you will, meaningful. ---
**Author:** ![brownsfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ad7895/32.png) [@brownsfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brownsfan)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2007, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cost-of-purchasing-the-us/403890/29 "2007-05-14T01:18:49Z")
And here I sit, almost 24 hours later, checkbook and pen in hand, waiting. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2007, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cost-of-purchasing-the-us/403890/30 "2007-05-14T03:32:20Z")
[QUOTE=Rigamarole] The question is hypothetical. Hypothetical != meaningless. Nobody says or believes that the situation posited in the OP is realistically possible, but discussing hypothetical situations can help improve one’s understanding of an issue in a way that _is_ significant, or if you will, meaningful. [/QUOTE] I have tried. Mightily. The basic understanding one needs in economics is the concept of value. It is more basic even than money. If you pick up nothing else at all from this thread, please get that much out of it. The way the OP’s question is worded makes it a hypothetical that is also meaningless. Too bad, but it can’t be helped. Not all hypotheticals are meaningless, but some of them are. This happens to be one. Again, if you think it is not meaningless, then answer the OP. Just explain how you plan to do it. ---
**Author:** ![WoodenTaco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/45deac/32.png) [@WoodenTaco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WoodenTaco)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2007, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cost-of-purchasing-the-us/403890/31 "2007-05-14T04:11:23Z")
[QUOTE=Exapno Mapcase] Again, if you think it is not meaningless, then answer the OP. Just explain how you plan to do it. [/QUOTE] Based on this line, it seems that you are identifying the question as meaningless because we can’t give a terribly good answer. I don’t think that makes very much sense, though. It’s certainly the case, first of all, that it is possible that someone could purchase all of the assets in the United States. There’s no physical barrier to it. It’s also the case that we could conceivably try to estimate the value of all assets in the US - indeed, here’s a scholarly article devoted to just that (albeit from 1908): [The Assets of the United States](http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0002-9602(190809)14%3A2%3C171%3ATAOTUS%3E2.0.CO%3B2-0) Now, maybe we can’t come up with a very accurate estimation of the final purchase price because of those market forces you mention. That doesn’t, however, mean that we are unable of finding any estimate at all. We _can_, it’s just not a very good one. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2007, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cost-of-purchasing-the-us/403890/32 "2007-05-14T04:34:40Z")
As I keep saying, prove me wrong. Go ahead. ---
**Author:** ![Pasta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecccb3/32.png) [@Pasta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pasta)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2007, 7:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cost-of-purchasing-the-us/403890/33 "2007-05-14T07:18:43Z")
Nothing to add, but perhaps discussion could progress if the OP was temporarily reduced in scope. Perhaps something like “What if the U.S. wanted to buy Iceland?” The issues **Exapno Mapcase** raises won’t disappear, but there might be some middle ground where those issues can be more cleanly tackled. Clearly there’s some political entity small enough that the idea of buying it isn’t outlandish. Start there, and take baby steps up to the U.S. if possible. In fact, Iceland’s too big. Start with, like, Dubuque, and see what happens. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cost-of-purchasing-the-us/403890.md?page=1)