It was reported in the news today that Meg Whitman, the rich lady trying to buy her way into the Governor’s (non) mansion in Sacramento, has now spent $119,000,000 on her campaign to date, outspending billionaire Mayor Mike Bloomberg in New York City.
While this has been a great private stimulus for the television stations, radio stations and commercial creators and the junk mail printers, it hasn’t resulted in a landslide of support for Ms. Whitman just yet.
For fun, I was wondering what you could buy for $119,000,000. This was the result from an hour on The Google. Let’s read on and see….and feel free to contribute your own ideas in the comments:
–$119,000,000 would fund the “Great Green Wall” that is designed to re-forest North Africa and prevent the spread of desert out there. (by the way, Bill Gates donated the $119,000,000 in this case)
-$119,000,000 would allow you to buy 119,000,000 copies of the Bible, in Kindle format. Or, 19,833,333 copies at 6 bucks a pop in print via Amazon.com (taxes and shipping not included).
-$119,000,000 would also buy you 7,933,333 copies of Atlas Shrugged in paperback format at (about) $15 each.
-$119,000,000 would cover the estimated loss of productivity created by Google’s “Pac Man” logo. Surely you recall this excellent lunch break entertainment, yes?
-$119,000,000 would cover the cost of about 23,800,000 Alice Waters approved “healthy” school lunches. This was calculated by taking the cost the Berkeley Unified School District is spending now at their pilot program ($4.85) and rounding up to $5. Hey, let’s not be cheap-asses – won’t someone please think of the children??
If eating Belgian endive and organic food isn’t your thing, you could buy 39,666,666 McDonalds Happy Meals at $3 each. And don’t forget – that’s still healthier than some of the crap schools serve nowadays.
-$119,000,000 could pay for 1,492 police officers paid at the low end of the San Francisco Police Department’s pay scale (one of the best paid police forces in the United States.) Or, pay ’em half, double the number, and send them to “guard the border” instead? Or, perhaps send them to where crimes are committed, maybe? Hmm?
-$119,000,000 would buy 9916666 doses of the adult influenza vaccine at $12 a dose. Let’s hope that anyone buying that many gets the group discount.
-$119,000,000 would buy 23,800 Glock 17 9mm pistols, presumably for our friends in law enforcement. At about $500 each, that’s not a bad deal. (Although, or the record, I’m not entirely sure if most police officers use a Glock 17 or another model, this is based on some quick Googling).
-$119,000,000 would pay a year’s college costs at a private institution in California for 2,644 students. Or pay for 4047 students at a UC school. Or pay for 5724 students at CSU. (Costs obtained from CaliforniaColleges.edu ). Or forget about tuition, etc. – build a college and call it Meg Whitman University!
-$119,000,000 could buy 1,700,000 “72 hour” disaster relief kits, complete with MREs, water, etc at $70 each. That might be pricey for disaster relief, perhaps? Again, buying in bulk usually gets you a better deal. In a disaster prone state like California, might that buy more goodwill than a bunch of stupid TV ads that ruin football?
Anyway, this was all back-of-the-envelope calculations after about 90 minutes on Google. Got any better ones? Feel free to enter them in the comments below.