The Road To The White House Is Expensive

From Most Expensive Campaign Ever: What Else Could $1.6B Have Bought? by Aaron Task:

With Election Day finally upon us, Henry and I took a step back from the horserace and political handicapping to talk about something that really matters: Money.

According to the Center for Responsive Politics, a record $1.6 billion was raised by all Presidential candidates during this interminably long campaign. (The New York Times says the figure could go as high as $2 billion by Election Day.)

Just for kicks, we did a little research to determine what else could $1.6 billion buy:

• Health insurance for over 130,000 families of four for one year (based on average cost of $12,000 per family per year, National Coalition on Health Care)
• Food for 145,000 families of four for one year (based on moderate cost of $9,500 per family per year, USDA)
• 8 million laptops for the One Laptop Per Child initiative (at $200 each, OLPC)
• Fill the gas tank of an average car 40 million times (based on car with a 15-gallon tank with gas at $2.60/gallon)
• Provide a great cable package for 1.3 million households for one year (Time Warner NYC cable/Internet with one premium channel)