Dubious math

Radio Bob just came into my studio and handed me a scrap of paper with the following sum on it:

$51,226.23

This, according to Bob and wherever he heard these numbers, is the amount each Iraqi would have received if the U.S. government did not invade, but gave each citizen an equal share of the amount that would’ve been spent on the war effort. The war effort in Iraq alone (not including the money spent in Afghanistan).

Put another way: the U.S. has so far spent around $1.6 trillion dollars waging the Iraq War. There are around 31 million Iraqi citizens. This means that each Iraqi man, woman and child would have received +/- $50,000.

This is, at best, dubious math. And just like any good high-school teacher, I have lots of questions about the accuracy of these numbers and where they came from.

But the point of math like this is to make us think what could’ve been?

Which, unless I’m getting the point of this exercise all wrong, is where you come in.

What could the U.S. have achieved by not invading Iraq but instead giving each Iraqi $50K? Comment below-