# So, Besides a War in Iraq. . . . **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 27, 2005, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-besides-a-war-in-iraq/328118 "2005-10-27T04:18:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2005, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-besides-a-war-in-iraq/328118/1 "2005-10-27T04:18:00Z")
What kinds of things will $200 + billion get you? I’m not interested in “multiples” like a 15 room mansion for every American (for example), but “single ticket” items, such as rebuilding the Gulf coast (est. cost $200 billion), manned missions to Mars (again est. cost $200 billion), etc. I don’t think that there’s a factual answer to this, since many folks will take issue with the estimates of how much some projects will cost. I’m sure that there’s probably a _lot_ of things we could be doing with the money which would be of greater benefit to us. ---
**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2005, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-besides-a-war-in-iraq/328118/2 "2005-10-27T04:51:39Z")
200 billion? The payroll for the Yankees. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2005, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-besides-a-war-in-iraq/328118/3 "2005-10-27T05:29:34Z")
[Here you go … .](http://nationalpriorities.org/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=182) Depressing, isn’t it? ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2005, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-besides-a-war-in-iraq/328118/4 "2005-10-27T06:09:33Z")
A fleet of supersonic airliners would be nice. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2005, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-besides-a-war-in-iraq/328118/5 "2005-10-27T06:21:14Z")
At one point in _The End of Poverty_, Jeffrey Sachs uses the figure $195 billion as the cost of a series of programs that would eliminate poverty throughout the world by 2015. I suppose you could spend the extra five billion on the paperwork. ---
**Author:** ![Nilor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a4c791/32.png) [@Nilor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nilor)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2005, 7:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-besides-a-war-in-iraq/328118/6 "2005-10-27T07:56:05Z")
A single golfball. If you contract me to make it. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2005, 8:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-besides-a-war-in-iraq/328118/7 "2005-10-27T08:34:32Z")
About eighty dollars for each of 25 million Iraqis. About eight dollars for each of 150 million Americans. ---
**Author:** ![Mops](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mops/32/16494_2.png) [@Mops](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mops)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2005, 9:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-besides-a-war-in-iraq/328118/8 "2005-10-27T09:09:08Z")
> [@Paul in Saudi](#): > > About eighty dollars for each of 25 million Iraqis. About eight dollars for each of 150 million Americans. That’s two billion and 1.2 billion dollars, respectively. Do the rest of us get the remainder? ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2005, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-besides-a-war-in-iraq/328118/9 "2005-10-27T13:23:58Z")
Decimal places are awkward things. So we are talking $8,000 per Iraqi. Sorry.