What Can $611 Billion Buy?
SLIDE SHOW By BOSTON GLOBE
According to the National Priorities Project, a nonprofit research group, the Bush Administration's latest Iraq War funding request would bring the total cost of the war to $611.5 billion. That got the Boston Globe wondering: What would $611 billion buy?
In a presentation you can watch here, The Boston Globe provides some alternative ways to spend $611.5 billion. Here are a couple of the possibilities they came up with:
Almost 18 months' worth of free gas for everyone
US drivers consume approximately 384.7 million gallons of gasoline a day. Retail prices averaged $3.00 a gallon in early November. Breaking it down, $611 billion could buy gasoline for everybody in the United States, for about 530 days.
Nearly 14 million years' worth of tuition, room, and board at Harvard
At published rates for this year, $611 billion translates into almost 14 million free rides for a year at Harvard University.
Tuition and fees at the University of Massachusetts-Boston could be paid for over 53 million years.
