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Friday 3 August 2012

The Six Billion Dollar Man

According to the latest figures, the man who eventually becomes the leader of the free world will be the winner of a $6bn contest. Think on that .... Six Billion Dollars!

Yes according to the Center for Responsive Politics, an independent research group which tracks the money in politics, they estimate that the total cost of the USA's November elections for the Presidency, House of Representatives and Senate, will come in at $5.8bn (£3.7bn).

Election Results 2008 - 2012 Spending will be up up 7% on 2008.

To give this some context, here are all the countries of the world whose annual Gross Domestic Product is less than $6bn:
  1. Bahamas
  2. Palestinian territories
  3. Zimbabwe
  4. French Polynesia
  5. Benin
  6. Nicaragua
  7. Lao People's Democratic Republic
  8. Mongolia
  9. Haiti
  10. Bermuda
  11. Republic of Moldova
  12. Rwanda
  13. Tajikistan
  14. Kosovo
  15. Niger
  16. Monaco
  17. Malawi
  18. Liechtenstein
  19. Kyrgyzstan
  20. Guinea
  21. Montenegro
  22. Netherlands Antilles
  23. Barbados
  24. Swaziland
  25. Mauritania
  26. Suriname
  27. Andorra
  28. Cayman Islands
  29. Togo
  30. Fiji
  31. Aruba
  32. Guyana
  33. Eritrea
  34. Lesotho
  35. Sierra Leone
  36. Greenland
  37. Central African Republic
  38. Cape Verde
  39. San Marino
  40. Bhutan
  41. Burundi
  42. Maldives
  43. Belize
  44. Turks and Caicos Islands
  45. Saint Lucia
  46. Djibouti
  47. Antigua and Barbuda
  48. Somalia
  49. Gambia
  50. Seychelles
  51. British Virgin Islands
  52. Liberia
  53. Guinea-Bissau
  54. Timor-Leste
  55. Grenada
  56. Vanuatu
  57. St. Vincent and the Grenadines
  58. Zanzibar
  59. Solomon Islands
  60. Samoa
  61. Saint Kitts and Nevis
  62. Comoros
  63. Dominica
  64. Tonga
  65. Micronesia, Federated States of
  66. Cook Islands
  67. Palau
  68. Sao Tome and Principe
  69. Anguilla
  70. Marshall Islands
  71. Kiribati
  72. Nauru
  73. Montserrat
  74. Tuvalu
But as Michael Toner, former chair of the US Federal Election Commission pointed out "Americans last year spent over $7bn [£4.5bn] on potato chips - isn't the leader of the free world worth at least that?"

Still its a funny world isn't it, when US expenditure on potato chips (crisps UK) or US elections is greater than the entire economies of up to 78 countries.

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