The Italian-built Lamborghini Aventador costs nearly $400,000. The money spent on election 2012 â€" for TV ads and other things â€" could theoretically get you more 15,000 of these V12 cars. But that's a lot more than have been built.
The Italian-built Lamborghini Aventador costs nearly $400,000. The money spent on election 2012 â€" for TV ads and other things â€" could theoretically get you more 15,000 of these V12 cars. But that's a lot more than have been built.
Adek Berry /AFP/Getty ImagesThe cost of the 2012 election will top a record $6 billion, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. If you find it difficult to visualize that figure, here are a few other ways to think about what $6 billion could buy:
â€" 30 million iPhone 5s;
â€" 3,000 New York City subway cars;
â€" 200 F-15 fighter jets;
â€" 981 public elementary schools;
â€" 15,503 Lamborghini Aventadors;
â€" 451 small hospitals;
â€" 545,454 1-carat Tiffany diamond engagement rings;
â€" 18 million iPad minis;
â€" 1 year of lunches for 11 million public school students;
â€" 4 Burj Khalifa skyscrapers (the world's tallest building).
And one more way to look at it: $6 billion could pay off less than 1 percent (0.67 percent, actually) of the projected 2013 federal deficit.
