3 Whisky Happy HourThe Ricochet PodcastGLoP CultureBeyond the Polls with Henry OlsenThe Erick Erickson ShowGiving VenturesMom Wars3 Martini LunchChicks on The RightParsing Immigration PolicyFederalist Radio HourWhat the Hell Is Going OnFreedom to LearnDaily SignalThe Learning CurveThe Conservative Woman’s GuideHeritage ExplainsNot Dead YetWho Funds that?The Radio Free Hillsdale HourThe Glenn ShowFirst Things PodcastCall Me Back - with Dan SenorHillsdale DialoguesLaw Talk with Epstein, Yoo & CookeThe LibertarianThe Report Card with Nat MalkusThe Kevin Roberts Show with Larry O’ConnorThe American IdeaMadison’s NotesConservative Crossroads with Henry OlsenThe Back of the BookGray MattersMartini ShotThe Dave Carter ShowThe Powerline ShowIn DissentHeard at HeritageSmart Girl PoliticsJames Lileks’ The DinerCase in Point: The Legal Show on the Hottest Legal Cases in Politics and CultureJobMakersOne on One with Robert DoarHomeschooling Journeys with Curious MikeHubwonk

Get the Ricochet app

Ricochet will work fine in a browser on your mobile devices, but for the best experience please download our app.

Download on the App StoreGet it on Google Play

Become a member.

Tired of the toxicity of social media? Why not join Ricochet for just $5/month? Think of it as an online bar. Come in, have a drink, hang out, say whatever you want. But don’t badger, bully, or berate the other drinkers. That's our only rule.

  1. Main Feed/
  2. Greenland: A modest, $85 billion proposal
January 20, 2026 at 3:35 PM

Greenland: A modest, $85 billion proposal

GPentelie
@GPentelie

To read this bio, please join Ricochet.

Join to bookmark15likesJoin to like23comments

I've seen it bandied about in various media outlets and such that it would cost about $700 billion for the U.S. to buy Greenland.

Poppycock, I say!

Greenland's land area is about 500 million acres. The cheapest land in the U.S. is about $200/acre (in New Mexico). Greenland is much more isolated, barren, inhospitable, and sparsely populated than the land in NM. I figure $100/acre is a more than fair price. That brings us to...500 million acres * $100/acre = $50 billion.

Denmark's government debt is about $35 billion. We give them the money to pay it all off in one fell swoop.

Denmark subsidizes Greenland to the tune of $600 million/year. We take that over => their budget benefits.

The aforementioned subsidy amounts to about...$600 million/year for 57,000 Greenlanders = $10,000 per capita. Let's double it to $20,000/capita. That translates to about $1.1 billion/year/capita. Easy, peasy. Ending Somali fraud in Minnesota, all by itself, covers that.

Summary:
Total upfront purchase cost: $85 billion, or just 12% of that aforementioned ridiculous $700 billion number.

Ongoing fixed expense: $1.1 billion/year, adjusted for inflation.

That's it.

IMPORTANT CONDITION: Denmark and Greenland get busy with whatever legislative work is necessary to complete the process by the end of this, our republic's 250th anniversary year. By Labor Day would be nice.

Tak for din opmærksomhed på denne sag!

This post was promoted to the Main Feed at the recommendation of Ricochet's members.

Discussion (23)

Sign in to commentSign in
  • To read this bio, please join Ricochet.

    JoelB@JoelB·38w

    Americans have become so used to the $ billions/trillions thrown around by our government that they have no sense of perspective. How would the defense contractors, politicians, enemy agents, drug cartels, social services, healthcare companies, and the rest hope to make money on a deal like this?

  • To read this bio, please join Ricochet.

    GPentelie@GPentelie·38w
    ReplyingtoJoelB

    JoelB (View Comment):

    Americans have become so used to the $ billions/trillions thrown around by our government that they have no sense of perspective. How would the defense contractors, politicians, enemy agents, drug cartels, social services, healthcare companies, and the rest hope to make money on a deal like this?

    Each year, on the anniversary of the Big Beautiful Greenland Deal, we do a Nuuk flyover and drop $1 billion's worth of $100 bills on it. Let all those people scramble and fight over it.

  • CHARTER MEMBER

    To read this bio, please join Ricochet.

    Sisyphus@Sisyphus·38w

    Whatever Denmark gets, the EU will bully them into sinking it into project Ukraine.

  • To read this bio, please join Ricochet.

    Steve Fast@SteveFast·38w

    Two problems - 1) It's not for sale, so you have a willing buyer but an unwilling seller, so that means the price will be higher than its fair market price. 2) There are a lot of minerals under the surface, so we will have to pay more than we would for barren surface land.

  • To read this bio, please join Ricochet.

    Clarendon@Mackinder·38w

    Greenland is not for sale. We get everything that we need from a security perspective from our relationship with Denmark, a great NATO ally. This whole attempt to take Greenland is absolute nonsense.

Scroll for later comments
+18 more comments
Join the conversation

You're seeing five of 23 comments. Sign in, or join for just $5 per month, to read them all and add your own.

Trending

Become a member.

Tired of the toxicity of social media? Why not join Ricochet for just $5/month? Think of it as an online bar. Come in, have a drink, hang out, say whatever you want. But don’t badger, bully, or berate the other drinkers. That's our only rule.

Join Ricochet

Get the Ricochet app

Download on the App StoreGet it on Google Play
  • •
  • •