# How much would it cost to buy everything? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 11, 2003, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-would-it-cost-to-buy-everything/154363 "2003-02-11T16:27:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Shalmanese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2003, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-would-it-cost-to-buy-everything/154363/1 "2003-02-11T16:27:39Z")
OK, assuming you could auto-magically buy everything that can be bought in the world at current market prices, ie. the act of buying doesn’t drive the price up to ridiculous heights, how much money would you need to buy everything in the world that has a price tag affixed to it? What would be the main thing bought? land? stocks? food? ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2003, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-would-it-cost-to-buy-everything/154363/2 "2003-02-11T17:44:20Z")
Logically it is impossible to buy “everything” because “everything” would include the currency used to purchase “everything” which by definition you would no longer own. ---
**Author:** ![Celyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@Celyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celyn)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2003, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-would-it-cost-to-buy-everything/154363/3 "2003-02-11T17:49:30Z")
It would cost all the money to buy everything. ---
**Author:** ![Trigonal\_Planar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/0ea827/32.png) [@Trigonal\_Planar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trigonal_Planar)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2003, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-would-it-cost-to-buy-everything/154363/4 "2003-02-11T18:00:58Z")
For a _very_ rough approximation, you could add up the real GDP of every country in the world. ---
**Author:** ![Zagadka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zagadka/32/7272_2.png) [@Zagadka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zagadka)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2003, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-would-it-cost-to-buy-everything/154363/5 "2003-02-11T18:11:57Z")
The Gross World Product is about 47 trillion USD. ---
**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2003, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-would-it-cost-to-buy-everything/154363/6 "2003-02-11T18:14:49Z")
I’m sorry, everything in the word is not for sale. It’s just on display 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2003, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-would-it-cost-to-buy-everything/154363/7 "2003-02-11T18:16:08Z")
But USD 47 trillion would only allow you to buy all the goods and services produced in the world in the space of one year. The value of the land, plant and other capital stock used to produce those goods and services are not included in the figure. ---
**Author:** ![Scarlett67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scarlett67/32/7387_2.png) [@Scarlett67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarlett67)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2003, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-would-it-cost-to-buy-everything/154363/8 "2003-02-11T19:02:09Z")
Are you including intangibles like intellectual property, gas and oil leases, contract options, etc.? IMO, it can’t be done. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2003, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-would-it-cost-to-buy-everything/154363/9 "2003-02-11T19:09:06Z")
[Steven Wright] You can’t have everything. Where would you keep it? [/Steven Wright] ---
**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:** [February 11, 2003, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-would-it-cost-to-buy-everything/154363/10 "2003-02-11T19:23:48Z")
If you were the last human alive, wouldn’t you have everything? ---
**Author:** ![Scarlett67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scarlett67/32/7387_2.png) [@Scarlett67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarlett67)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2003, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-would-it-cost-to-buy-everything/154363/11 "2003-02-11T19:23:51Z")
Just remembered this peculiarly relevant short story: [John Jones’s Dollar](http://xavier.xu.edu/~polt/etexts/dollar.html)