Write Your Own Editorial -- Part 2

Feb. 20, 2003
This is the second installment of our annual collection of dollar values. As pointed out in Part 1 appearing in our February 6 issue, it is up to you to find whatever amusement, amazement, or irony you can.

Write your own editorial -- Part 2

by Ronald Khol, Editor

Cost of medical care that will be required during seven years in prison for a quadriplegic convicted of selling marijuana: $660,000. Price paid at an auction for a 1932 movie poster featuring Boris Karloff in The Mummy: $453,000. Cost of a 30-second commercial on "Monday Night Football": $400,000. Annual pay earned by a United Airlines pilot for working 12 days per month: $265,000. Average commissions earned by stock brokers in 2000: $200,000. Cost for a middle-income family to raise a child born in 2001 to age 17: $170,460. Assets including home equity in 1998 of a typical household headed by people 62 to 74 years old: $148,100.

Price paid at an auction for a comic book in which Batman's sidekick Robin made his first appearance: $132,250. Salary of an air-traffic controller who robbed banks to supplement his income: $98,000. Price for 25 hours use of a time-shared business-jet airplane: $88,000. Price paid at an auction for the comic book in which Superman made his first appearance: $86,250. Amount a law firm charged LTV executives for telling them whether or not they would be liable for damages if the firm went out of business: $64,000. Starting pay for a pilot at United Airlines: $46,000. Average spending by each household in the United States for discretionary as well as necessary items: $38,000. Annual cost of attending Syracuse University: $34,000. Annual tuition at the University of Rochester medical school: $30,300. Typical cost for treating a heart attack: $28,600.

Average cost of tuition and living expenses at a private college: $27,677. Average amount borrowed to buy a car: $26,208. Annual value of an athletic scholarship granted by Fairleigh Dickinson University to a member of the woman's bowling team: $20,411. Consultant's fee for six-months assistance helping newly hired executives get accustomed to their jobs: $20,000. Average cost of legal and appraisal fees in a divorce: $20,000. Average cost of tuition for a year at a private college: $18,273. Average amount of federal loans at graduation for a college student: $16,900. Average cost of tuition and living expenses at a public college: $12,841. Public-school spending per pupil in New York City: $10,000. Typical cost of a funeral, cemetery lot, and tombstone: $9,000. Average amount households spend annually buying cars: $7,000. Average amount owed by households on credit cards: $6,800. Health-care costs per employee at General Electric Co.: $6,500. Tuition at Ohio State University: $5,691. Average annual household spending on food: $5,158. Average cost of tuition at a public college: $4,081. Average cost of damage to an automobile in a collision with a deer: $2,600. Average annual household spending for entertainment: $1,863. Tuition at the University of Kansas: $1,460.

Average amount of money taken in a bank robbery: $1,200. Approximate profit earned by Honda, Nissan, and Toyota on each car they build: $1,100. Typical cost of study materials and examination fees to get a driver's license in Britain: $900. Average annual household spending on gambling: $600. Typical spending per

K-12 student for back-to-school clothing and other items each fall: $527. Typical spending by a family on a vacation trip averaging 3.4 nights away from home: $463. Average increase in medical spending incurred by a person who is obese: $395. Average annual household spending for alcoholic drinks: $372. Average annual household spending for tobacco: $319. Average increase in medical spending incurred by a person who smokes: $230. Average increase in medical spending incurred by an alcoholic: $150. Premium for $300,000 worth of insurance coverage against having your child kidnapped: $90. Portion of every $100 paid by students covering their college tuition in full turned over to students needing financial aid: $38.

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