In Nov '03, the U.S. approved another $87.5 billion dollars for the Iraq war and reconstruction.  That's on top of the $79 billion dollars it already approved in April '03.  It's easy for our government officials to talk about these numbers.  They do it every day... a billion here, a billion there.  What's the big deal?  However, these are HUGE figures!  We hope to put it in perspective.

That's a big number!  What does that mean to the average American?  Or, how much of the average American's family income was taken from them to fund the war?  Using population and household figures from the U.S. Census, we arrive at the following.
 

Cost to Average American Family

Cost of War:	$166,500,000,000
Total # of households	109,960,188
Cost per household	$1,514

That's a lot of money!  It's 4% of total household income for the average family!  Most Americans would probably rather spend that $1,514 on groceries, day care, tuition, heating bills, etc.  It's very upsetting to know that some of that money is going to create a zip code system for Iraq.  And, more is going to construct an Iraqi prison with a cost at $50,000 per bed!  What about America's problems with the postal system?  What about America's problem of prison overcrowding?

Also included in the costs is $5.6 billion for Iraq's electric sector.  What about America's vulnerability with our power grid?  We've seen significant parts of the nation come to a grinding halt because of its weaknesses.  Then, there's $3.2 billion for Iraqi security and law enforcement.  Here in America, we have our own problems with crime, rapes, murders, child abductions, etc.  What about fixing our country's problems before worrying about another country?
 

$166.5 billion dollars laid end-to-end....

Number of times $166.5b would circle the globe (note: 2)	648
Round trips from Washington D.C. to Baghdad (note: 3)	1,299
Width of path (in dollar bills) between Washington D.C. and Baghdad (note: 4)	2,598
Round trips from Earth to the Moon (note: 5)	34
How far $166.5b would reach from Earth to the Sun (note: 6)	0.17

 

More perspectives on $166.5 billion dollars...

We could cover the entire area of Baghdad (200 sq. miles) in dollar bills!  How many layers deep?!?! (note: 7)	8
Amount of money we could give to EVERY man, women and child in Iraq (note: 8)	$6,745.00
Year in which cost of Iraq war would exceed the entire U.S. Federal Budget!	1968
Iraq war costs as a multiple of Federal spending on all science, space and technology programs. (2003 U.S. Federal Budget).  Yes, we're spending 8.5 times as much on the Iraq war as we are on all science, space and technology programs!	8.5

 

Supplemental Math Notes (if you don't believe us):
  {Sorry for our backwards English units!  We should be using metric, but that's another article.}

Note 1:  Dollars end-to-end in one mile
U.S. $1 bill is 6.14 inches in length
     - OR -
0.51166666666666666666666666666667 dollar bills in a foot
* 5,280 feet per mile = 10,319 dollar bills end-to-end in a mile

Note 2:  To circle the globe:
10,319 dollar bills in mile x 24,901.55 miles (circumference of earth) =  256,964,528.99 dollars.
$166,500,000,000 / $256,964,528.99 = ~ 648

Note 3: Round trips to Iraq
6,211 miles from Washington D.C. to Baghdad, Iraq x 2 ways = 12,422 miles
x 10,319 dollar bills in mile =  $128,182,618
$166,500,000,000 / $128,182,618 = ~ 1,299

Note 4: Width of path (in dollar bills) to Iraq
6,211 miles from Washington D.C. to Baghdad, Iraq x 10,319 dollar bills in mile = $ 64,091,309
$166,500,000,000 /$64,091,309 = ~ 2598

Note 5:  Round trips to moon:
Avg distance to moon = 238,907 miles
x 5,280 ft/mi = 1,261,428,960 ft to moon
* 12 inches = 15,137,147,520 inches to moon
/  6.14 inches (length of dollar) = 2,465,333,472 dollar bills end-to-end to reach the moon one-way
* 2 ways = 4,930,666,944 dollar bills end-to-end for a round trip to the moon.
/ $166,500,000,000 = 33.77 round trips

Note 6: From Earth to Sun
Avg miles to sun = 93,000,000
x 10,319 dollar bills in mile =  $959,667,000,000
$166,500,000,000 / $959,667,000,000 =  0.17 times - FINALLY something we can compare to!

Note 7: Cover Baghdad
1 sq mile = 10,319 dollar bills x 10,319 dollar bills =  $106,481,761 dollar bills in a sq mile.
Baghdad is 200 square miles **, so 200 x $106,481,761 =  $21,296,352,200 to cover Baghdad
$166,500,000,000 / $21,296,352,200 = 7.8 or ~ 8 times

** 150-250 square miles.  250 along both the banks of the Tigris according to columbia.edu. 150 according to bbc.co.uk

Note 8: Dollars per Iraqi citizen
Population: 24,683,313  (from cia.gov Iraq factsheet.)
$166,500,000,000 / 24,683,313 = $6,745

Note 9: Equivalent U.S. Federal Budget
Year: 1968, Entire Federal Budget in Current Year dollars was $153 billion.
Source: Office of Mgmt & Budget, White House, 2004 Budget Report (large file!)

Note 10: Multiple of Federal spending on all science, space and technology programs
$19.7 billion - 2003 Federal spending (source: 2004 Budget Report)
$166,500,000,000 / $19,700,000,000 = ~8.5 times