# How Much Is the Earth Worth? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 8, 2016, 7:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-is-the-earth-worth/756814 "2016-06-08T07:50:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![watchwolf49](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9c0ed/32.png) [@watchwolf49](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/watchwolf49)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2016, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-is-the-earth-worth/756814/21 "2016-06-08T15:10:28Z")
I’m not afraid of making wild speculations in GQ … The most valuable commodity on Earth are the human slaves, say an average of a million Woolongs each that comes out to 7 quotillion … that should buy a manor on Altair 4. ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2016, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-is-the-earth-worth/756814/22 "2016-06-08T15:11:27Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > [Inevitable hijack] > All right, then: What could we sell to Space Aliens for the most money? > > Since the OP boils down to value. > > Also, it’s a question of shopping time and impulse buying. > > I so want to make this hijack an independent OP/thread, but _even I_ realize it is too speculative for a GQ thread. I would think the only thing unique to Earth would be it’s biology. Our DNA and all the chemicals it can create might be worth something. All the basic elements are so easily gotten from asteroids we probably couldn’t give away the planet. ---
**Author:** ![Blue\_Blistering\_Barnacle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blue_blistering_barnacle/32/3386_2.png) [@Blue\_Blistering\_Barnacle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blue_Blistering_Barnacle)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2016, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-is-the-earth-worth/756814/23 "2016-06-08T15:21:16Z")
> [@Xema](#): > > This problem was neatly solved in the first few pages of _Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy_ - though admittedly in a way that would tend to reduce the value of your investment. Actually, it increases the value (assuming hyperspace bypasses are valuable). ---
**Author:** ![leahcim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b4bc9f/32.png) [@leahcim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leahcim)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2016, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-is-the-earth-worth/756814/24 "2016-06-08T15:46:25Z")
> [@The\_Niply\_Elder](#): > > The worth of anything is dictated by the highest bidders. Well, really, the worth of anything is dictated by the _second_ highest bidder. Once the highest bidder outbids them by even a trivial amount, they don’t have to bid any higher. Assuming the second-highest bidder is “humanity”, at the aliens’ legal system recognizes some kind of “aboriginal title” to even the parts of the Earth (like the mantle) we are not currently actively using, then the value of the Earth is the price that humanity would require to be enticed to sell. Maybe the aliens just want the Earth as an investment property, and humanity wouldn’t even have to relocate – just sign a lease and start paying rent. A good rental property should make back its investment in 20 years so a good price would be 20 times humanity’s annual rent. ---
**Author:** ![SmartAlecCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/67e7ee/32.png) [@SmartAlecCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmartAlecCat)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2016, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-is-the-earth-worth/756814/25 "2016-06-08T15:51:41Z")
I realize the OP focused on the material, but honestly there is a lot of physical stuff out there (and when I say ‘a lot’, I mean a lot.) Taking into account scarcity, the value of that stuff is practically 0. Now consider if there were an alien that valued the intellectual property produced by the Earth – every song, play, book, etc. Those things could have a considerably higher value to another civilization, even if it is trivial for them to harvest gold/diamonds/etc. from some other planet. ---
**Author:** ![leahcim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b4bc9f/32.png) [@leahcim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leahcim)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2016, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-is-the-earth-worth/756814/26 "2016-06-08T15:59:51Z")
> [@watchwolf49](#): > > The most valuable commodity on Earth are the human slaves… I would think that any civilization capable of space travel would also be capable of a level of industrial automation that makes flesh-and-blood slaves particularly valueless. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2016, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-is-the-earth-worth/756814/27 "2016-06-08T16:01:50Z")
> [@SmartAlecCat](#): > > I realize the OP focused on the material, but honestly there is a lot of physical stuff out there (and when I say ‘a lot’, I mean a lot.) Taking into account scarcity, the value of that stuff is practically 0. > > Now consider if there were an alien that valued the intellectual property produced by the Earth – every song, play, book, etc. Those things could have a considerably higher value to another civilization, even if it is trivial for them to harvest gold/diamonds/etc. from some other planet. Just think how valuable DNA is. [Assimilating Our Culture.](https://books.google.com/books?id=WLuLgG6148IC&pg=PA21&lpg=PA21&dq=larry+niven+Glig&source=bl&ots=ujWweerDcc&sig=x80CsyXHzQFHfnZOyE71LwprpKI&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwipwrGo5pjNAhURxWMKHdgQBWUQ6AEIOjAE#v=onepage&q=larry%20niven%20Glig&f=false) ---
**Author:** ![watchwolf49](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9c0ed/32.png) [@watchwolf49](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/watchwolf49)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2016, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-is-the-earth-worth/756814/28 "2016-06-08T16:24:23Z")
> [@leahcim](#): > > I would think that any civilization capable of space travel would also be capable of a level of industrial automation that makes flesh-and-blood slaves particularly valueless. Sure, and by that logic everything on Earth is valueless … even things that are naturally rare can be spun out of a cyclotron. Then the question is why would aliens even bother to come here? ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2016, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-is-the-earth-worth/756814/29 "2016-06-08T17:06:07Z")
If only [David Bowie](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_Who_Sold_the_World_%28album%29) were still around, he could tell us. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2016, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-is-the-earth-worth/756814/30 "2016-06-08T17:18:45Z")
> [@leahcim](#): > > Well, really, the worth of anything is dictated by the _second_ highest bidder. Once the highest bidder outbids them by even a trivial amount, they don’t have to bid any higher. > > Assuming the second-highest bidder is “humanity”, at the aliens’ legal system recognizes some kind of “aboriginal title” to even the parts of the Earth (like the mantle) we are not currently actively using, then the value of the Earth is the price that humanity would require to be enticed to sell. > > Maybe the aliens just want the Earth as an investment property, and humanity wouldn’t even have to relocate – just sign a lease and start paying rent. A good rental property should make back its investment in 20 years so a good price would be 20 times humanity’s annual rent. Right, but just because you could sell your house for a lot of money doesn’t mean it’s a good idea to sell your house. You’d have to look at what other housing you could afford after you sold your house. So what are comparable rents in the galaxy? We’d have a pretty large amount of capital, but what good will it do us if we spend it all in 20 years on renting Tau Ceti IV? If we invested the capital and tried to pay rent without touching the capital, what sort of accomodations could we purchase? And what about transportation–doesn’t do us much good if we could rent Tau Ceti IV for 37 million Qatloos, when it would cost us 970 million Qatloos to transport all of humanity there. So we’re kind of like people who own an expensive house in San Francisco. Sure we could sell it, but we’d have to move, and purchasing/renting a comparable property just puts us right back where we are now. The only way to cash out is to move to a less expensive market. How are the Magellanic Clouds looking these days? ---
**Author:** ![Anny\_Middon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bc79bd/32.png) [@Anny\_Middon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anny_Middon)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2016, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-is-the-earth-worth/756814/31 "2016-06-08T17:21:11Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > The only reason I don’t buy the whole Earth is that I can’t figure out how to evict everyone. You’d all be a bunch of damn squatters! First, you build an identical world. Then you supply a ladder that runs between the worlds. Finally, you offer free T-shirts to anyone who goes to the fake Earth. Naturally, everyone takes you up on your offer. Finally, Brain, you and Pinky have taken over the world! ---
**Author:** ![leahcim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b4bc9f/32.png) [@leahcim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leahcim)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2016, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-is-the-earth-worth/756814/32 "2016-06-08T19:17:20Z")
> [@Lemur866](#): > > Right, but just because you could sell your house for a lot of money doesn’t mean it’s a good idea to sell your house. But for every situation, there is \*some \*amount of money (or some kind of remuneration) at which it becomes a good idea to sell your house. You just have to figure out what that is and whether that is more or less than what the aliens are offering. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2016, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-is-the-earth-worth/756814/33 "2016-06-08T19:27:23Z")
But I’m mostly thinking about this scenario: > [@](#): > > Maybe the aliens just want the Earth as an investment property, and humanity wouldn’t even have to relocate – just sign a lease and start paying rent. A good rental property should make back its investment in 20 years so a good price would be 20 times humanity’s annual rent. This is essentially taking out a reverse mortgage on the Earth, yes? But a reverse mortgage only makes sense if you’re planning on dying before the terms of the mortgage expire. Selling your house to someone and renting it back from them only makes sense if you need the capital now for some other expense. But let’s face it, humans are going to be pretty naive intergalactic investors, and the odds that we’ll be able to get a more productive investment than the Earth are pretty low due to the information asymmetry we’d be dealing with. ---
**Author:** ![purplehearingaid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@purplehearingaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehearingaid)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2016, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-is-the-earth-worth/756814/34 "2016-06-08T19:32:44Z")
What about all seafood in the ocean and trees etc everything on the earth has a value to it. ---
**Author:** ![Asympotically\_fat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e47c2d/32.png) [@Asympotically\_fat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asympotically_fat)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2016, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-is-the-earth-worth/756814/35 "2016-06-08T20:30:24Z")
£75.12s.5d ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2016, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-is-the-earth-worth/756814/36 "2016-06-08T22:57:02Z")
The affair is described, although mostly poetically, in the science fiction novel Norstrilia, by Cordwainer Smith. Rod McBan buys the earth… But, in the story, he buys it with the assistance of an economics warfare computer, a system designed to use financial tools to harm an enemy’s economy. In the story, the process is extremely complex, involving hugely intricate manipulations, a parlay of dependent investments, timed so that each purchase or sale affects the market, so that downstream purchases or investments will all cascade to the desired result. In real life, you know the guy who had a paperclip, and kept trading it for other things that were slightly more valuable? He ended up with a house. So…in practice, we have a house that is “worth” a paperclip. The earth might be purchased for one sick sheep. Ya never know. ---
**Author:** ![SigMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@SigMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SigMan)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2016, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-is-the-earth-worth/756814/37 "2016-06-09T01:00:43Z")
It’s yours for $39.95 plus tax. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2016, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-is-the-earth-worth/756814/38 "2016-06-09T03:50:49Z")
Don’t sell, anyone! The aliens know about some [dilithium crystal deposits](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_Much_for_Just_the_Planet%3F) that we’re unaware of… ---
**Author:** ![mr\_wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5e9695/32.png) [@mr\_wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mr_wolf)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2016, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-is-the-earth-worth/756814/39 "2016-06-09T11:42:50Z")
> [@The\_Niply\_Elder](#): > > everything Brilliant! ---
**Author:** ![Common\_Tater](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/common_tater/32/13846_2.png) [@Common\_Tater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Common_Tater)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2016, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-is-the-earth-worth/756814/40 "2016-06-09T22:10:40Z")
Thing is, I’m not sure if it’s real or not. Is it OK if I bring in an expert to take a look at it? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-is-the-earth-worth/756814.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-is-the-earth-worth/756814.md?page=3)