Stunning Figures...
OK - the amount of money being spent on the Iraq War is astounding - but - the numbers are awesome and difficult to grasp... they end up being abstract to most people (including me).
So, I decided to try putting the cost into more understandable terms.
Therefore, I envisioned selling off entire blocks of residential Philadelphia neighborhoods as a way to fund the war!
Apparently, the stated figure to run the war is 195 million dollars a day... that's $195,000,000.
I researched the median housing value in Philadelphia - it's $57,000, but I bumped that up to $65,000 to account for the housing boom.
Philadelphia is approximately 135 square miles in size, and each square mile holds approximately 144 city blocks (12 x 12 blocks of the numbered streets, which have smaller streets between them). This makes for about 19,440 blocks. The blocks have about 174 houses each on them (I counted blocks on Google Maps satellite photos to be sure) - this is accounting for houses on the smaller streets - giving Philadelphia approximately 3,382,560 addresses.
At the median housing cost, a block of Philadelphia residential real estate is valued at about $11,310,000.
We'd need to liquidate 17 blocks of Philadelphia real estate each day to fund the war.
That's 121 blocks of Philadelphia each week.
Or 523 blocks (3.5 square miles) of Philadelphia each month.
Or 6,276 blocks (43.5 square miles) of Philadelphia a year.
Let's pause a minute - in a year, we would sell off 1/3 of Philadelphia to fund the war.
We've been at war for three years. In our scenario, Philly is gone! Nobody home! All bought-up and closed down! A ghost town! Just stray dogs and cats! Let's start on Pittsburgh, or Boston next!
(Washington DC would have been sold off in the first year... some would say it already has been!)
I hope this helps to put the war cost into perspective. My God, it must be a great time to be in the defense contractor biz.
(Please feel free to correct my figures - I'll revise my spreadsheet with the best available information!)
So, I decided to try putting the cost into more understandable terms.
Therefore, I envisioned selling off entire blocks of residential Philadelphia neighborhoods as a way to fund the war!
Apparently, the stated figure to run the war is 195 million dollars a day... that's $195,000,000.
I researched the median housing value in Philadelphia - it's $57,000, but I bumped that up to $65,000 to account for the housing boom.
Philadelphia is approximately 135 square miles in size, and each square mile holds approximately 144 city blocks (12 x 12 blocks of the numbered streets, which have smaller streets between them). This makes for about 19,440 blocks. The blocks have about 174 houses each on them (I counted blocks on Google Maps satellite photos to be sure) - this is accounting for houses on the smaller streets - giving Philadelphia approximately 3,382,560 addresses.
At the median housing cost, a block of Philadelphia residential real estate is valued at about $11,310,000.
We'd need to liquidate 17 blocks of Philadelphia real estate each day to fund the war.
That's 121 blocks of Philadelphia each week.
Or 523 blocks (3.5 square miles) of Philadelphia each month.
Or 6,276 blocks (43.5 square miles) of Philadelphia a year.
Let's pause a minute - in a year, we would sell off 1/3 of Philadelphia to fund the war.
We've been at war for three years. In our scenario, Philly is gone! Nobody home! All bought-up and closed down! A ghost town! Just stray dogs and cats! Let's start on Pittsburgh, or Boston next!
(Washington DC would have been sold off in the first year... some would say it already has been!)
I hope this helps to put the war cost into perspective. My God, it must be a great time to be in the defense contractor biz.
(Please feel free to correct my figures - I'll revise my spreadsheet with the best available information!)
posted by kenkramar at 11:54 PM
2 Comments:
Let's put this in perspective:
The Delaware river moves a whole lot of dirt, man... Conshohocken is a name that makes me, frankly, uncomfortable. Let's not mention Wissahicken. And another thing, the Move was a band before it was a movement. Finally, what is that thing between Leif Garrett's eyes?
Respectfully yours,
General Comments retired
Dear General retired,
I think I read in a wikipedia somewhere that Conshohocken is the Lenni Lenape word for "scruffy town nestled in the hills" or something like that.
As for Leif Garrett's thing, I was taken aback too. Maybe he fell running from the police? (conjecture!) Zit picking gone wild? (conjecture!) I mean it is a mugshot... All I can say is it doesn't show up on any pictures on Leif's website (thankfully).
Much luv 2 Leif (chest thump!)
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