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All values are from published sources but are not documented. Part 2 will appear in the March 4, 2004 issue.
Income taxes collected from individuals: $794 billion. Spending to ship freight: $571 billion. Debt of the Ford Motor Co.: $180 billion. Income taxes collected from corporations: $132 billion. IRS collections of Federal estate and gift taxes: $22 billion. Amount spent on advertising aimed at children ages 12 and under: $15 billion. Wal-Mart purchases from suppliers in China: $15 billion.
Money sent back to Mexico in 2002 by Mexicans employed in the United States: $10 billion. Sales of women's intimate apparel: $10 billion. Spending for tickets to movies: $9 billion. Spending to advertise food to children ages 12 and under: $7.5 billion. Profit of Wal-Mart Corp.: $6.6 billion. Value of the gold kept in Fort Knox: $6 billion. Sales of college textbooks: $3.9 billion. Federal spending on nanotechnology: $3.7 billion. Sales of items displaying college logos: $3 billion. Amount insurers lost on the recent California wildfires: $3 billion. Federal appropriation to fight future wildfires in California: $3 billion.
Spending by Americans for birdseed: $2.6 billion. Spending by cable and satellite systems to carry ESPN programming: $2 billion. Sales of bagged lettuce: $2 billion. Sales of Viagra: $1.7 billion. Annual damage done to automobiles in collisions with deer: $1.5 billion. Single day sales for Wal-Mart on the day after Thanksgiving 2002: $1.43 billion. Spending for television advertisements in the 2002 congressional elections: $1 billion. Insurance company payments for claims from dog bites: $1 billion. Projected spending by bankrupt Enron by 2006 for fees to lawyers, accountants, and consultants: $1 billion.
Budget of Wall Street watchdog, the Securities and Exchange Commission: $841 million. Cost to build the Queen Mary 2 cruise ship: $800 million. Annual spending by Americans on bird feeders, bird houses, and bird baths: $733 million. Loan defaults experienced by Mitsubishi Motors Corp. when it promoted attractive credit terms to single 20-something buyers: $469 million. Box-office gross of the movie "Spider-Man:" $406 million. Collective losses of all National Hockey League teams in 2003: $300 million. Proposed expenditure to build an indoor rain forest in Iowa to teach children about the environment: $225 million.
Amount Joan Kroc bequeathed in her will to National Public Radio: $200 million. Amount power-wheelchair companies have fraudulently billed Medicare: $167 million. Amount Bill Gates donated to fight AIDS in India: $100 million. Budget of the national office of the Girl Scouts of the USA: $62 million. Bequeath by Joan Kroc to Notre Dame to establish an Institute of Peace Studies: $50 million. Money raised by Mothers Against Drunk Driving: $44 million. Earnings of Elvis Presley last year: $40 million. Earnings last year of Charles Schulz, deceased creator of the "Peanuts" cartoon: $32 million. Earnings of John Lennon last year: $19 million. Earnings last year of Dale Earnhardt, who died in 2001: $15 million. Earnings last year of Marilyn Monroe: $8 million. Median compensation for CEOs at 350 major U.S. corporations: $3 million. Unpaid parking fines in New York City incurred by Egyptian diplomats: $2.0 million. Average salary of a player in the National Hockey League: $1.8 million. Money paid to lawyers and lobbyists by India to deflect complaints about Indians taking too many high-tech jobs away from Americans: $940,000. Promotional spending by Medicare to fly a blimp over sporting events: $600,000.
Finally, about 11.3 % of the men born in 2001 will spend time in prison sometime during their lifetime. Also, when a Berber tribesman wishes to convey to a lady that he is captivated by her charms, he says: "You have captured my liver."
-- Ronald Khol, Editor
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