980: Money/Transcript

• Below is the complete transcript for 980: Money.
  • (Or so it will be - once someone finishes it).
• The transcript on the main page, has been assigned to just state the text that is visible in the small version of the image - that is mainly the headings.
• This page tries to give a full transcript of this huge version of the comic.
• To be able to link to this transcript from the explain section, the title panel and each of the five main panels will have a section
  • Money
  • Dollars
  • Thousands
  • Millions
  • Billions
  • Trillions
• Each group within each of these panels will have their own sub section for this purpose.
  • Due to the extensive work this is, there will be several notes in the transcript that may need to be moved to the explanation at some point, but this will be done so, when the right time arrives - i.e. when that relevant section of the explanation are written.
  • One type will be the several errors mentioned below. There are not many sections that have been checked for errors, but when an error is discovered it will be noted.

Money

[Title panel at the top left]

Money

A chart of

almost

all of it,

where it is, and

what it can do

[Almost is written in a very small font compared to the rest]

[Below the entire chart there is a line of right text below the Trillions chart. As this is not part of the five sections it will be written here:]

Thank you to Emily Collins for economics help, Ray Nute for corporate accounting help, Sara Gillespie for miscellaneous information, and Christina Gleason for 3 AM typesetting.

[There are 5 large panels below the title panel, each with a series of plots, comparing the values of various things. Each large panel is covered in colored squares, and each single square represents a power of ten (10^(3*n) for n = 0, 1, 2, 3, 4), be it single dollars, thousands of dollars, or even trillions of dollars. Below is a section for each of these panels]

[Many of the items in each panel have been grouped in small or large groups - some clearly divided - maybe in a frame, or at least with a clear title. But many others are just grouped together. Below in each panels section all these groups are listed as best as possible starting more or less from the top left going towards the bottom right. Within the groups the individual items are listed similarly although if they are given in columns/rows this will be used as well to define the order of the items. If there is a heading for a group this will be used as the title for the sub section - else the first item in the group becomes the title. In groups with a given title, items that are on the list, will be indented to show where they belong. Similar if there are sub text to a given item - then this text will also be indented. If there is a title, then this will be written in bold letters in the transcript.]

Dollars

Completed on 2014-06-07

[This section is right below the title panel at the top left - it covers the price of a single coffees up to the hourly salaries of CEOs.]

Dollars

Important notes

[There is a box with a note next to the title. The first line of text is written in a dark orange color - the same color as the frame of the box. It is the only text that is not black - apart from the white on black background for the main panels title.]

Important notes:

This chart is entirely in 2011 dollars.

Every value associated with a year before 2011 was adjusted for inflation using the consumer Price Index.

Nearly every amount has a cited source - when possible,

a scholarly work or government publication. A list of

sources is available at http://xkcd.com/980/sources/

[The rest of this panel shows how much the individual items values compare to a single dollar. Next to each price in dollar will be drawn a number of green squares equal to this amount - so for the 1 dollar bill there is 1 square, and for the 1000 dollar bill 1000 squares.]

$1 bill

$1 bill

$10 bill

Apples (one dozen) $5.68

Dollar Menu item $1.00

Daily interest on average credit card debt ($9,840) $5.63

Starbucks Coffee $2.00

Average single US restaurant meal

[These items are singled out as they are framed by a light green square with rounded corners]

Average single US restaurant meal $35.65

Average meal at the 20 costliest San Francisco restaurants $85.27

Game consoles

Game consoles

PS3 $250

Xbox 360 $200

Wii $150

Dinner for four

[These items are singled out as they are framed by a light green square with rounded corners]

Dinner for four

(Lighter blocks show value of time required using median US wage of $16.27/hour)

Homemade rice and pinto beans $9.26 (With time cost of two hours of shopping, travel, prep and cleanup: $41.80)

Homemade chicken dinner $13.78 (With time cost of two hours of shopping, travel, prep and cleanup: $46.32)

McDonalds $27.89 (With time cost of 30 minutes travel: $36.03)

Arby’s $34.00 (With time cost of 30 minutes travel: $42.13)

Chili’s $69.64 (With time cost of 30 minutes travel: $77.78)

Outback Steakhouse $109.82 (With time cost of 30 minutes travel: $117.96)

Loose change value per pound

Loose change value per pound $12.80

Loose change with no quarters $5.40

Annual value of pennies received in change (at one daily cash purchase) $7.30

Loose change with no pennies $17.40

Median household daily income

Median household daily income $136.28

[The heading stands to the right of the block of squares. The first third of the blocks are a darker green. The two parts of the blocks are labeled]

Taxes $32.16

After-tax $104.12

$1000 bill

$1000 bill (Grover Cleveland, discontinued)

$500 bill (William McKinley, discontinued)

Paperback book

Paperback book $6.80

Hardcover book $32.27

Audio book $50.42

Kindle $79.00

New video game $49.99

Traditional cell phone average monthly fee $77.36

Smartphone average monthly fee $110.30

Kindle keyboard + 3G $139

One-gallon jug of loose change

One-gallon jug of loose change $270

Pet ownership

[These items are singled out as they are framed by a light green square with rounded corners]

Pet ownership

ASPCA estiamtes

Annual cost of rabbit ownership $730

Annual cost of dog ownership $695

Annual cost of cat ownership $670

Annual cost of fish ownership $35

Annual cost of bird ownership $200

Annual cost of small mammal ownership $300

Kindle Fire

Kindle Fire $199

Men’s suit $400

Low-end bicycle $190

Basic iPad $499

iPad+3G+ a year of data $869

Basic Macbook Air $999

Netbook $249.99

iPod Nano $129

Mac Mini $599

Comcast cable internet for a year ($59.99/month) $719.88

Traditional cell phone average annual bill

Traditional cell phone average annual bill $928.30

Smartphone average annual bill $1,320

Worker/CEO comparison

[These items are singled out as they are framed in together]

Worker/CEO comparison

1965 production worker average hourly wage $19.61

2007 production worker average hourly wage $19.71

Typical 1965 CEO pay for the same period $490.31

Typical 2007 CEO pay for the same period $5419.97

Thousands

Complete on 2014-06-13

[This section is directly below the Dollars section – it discusses values from around $1000 to $1,000,000, including a dissection of the song If I had $1000000.]

Thousands

[The Dollars section is zoomed down so the area is only 1/1000 of the size and is shown at the top of the Thousands section with lines indicating this zoom]

[The rest of this panel shows how much the individual items values compare to thousand dollars. Next to each price in dollar will be drawn a number of orange squares equal to the number of thousand dollars in the amount - so for a 1000 dollar item there will be one square. And for a small house at a price of $100,000 there will be 100 squares.]

Typical household net worth by head of household’s age

[These items are singled out as they are in a frame.]

Typical household net worth by head of household’s age

[There is two columns of blocks across from each other, with these headings:]

…in 1984 …in 2009

[On each side of two columns are given the values. In between the columns are written the age range:]

$11,680 <35 years $3,710

$72,090 35-44 years $40,140

$115,060 45-54 years $103,040

$149,240 55-64 years $164,270

$122,100 >65 years $172,820

One thousand dollars

[Inside a frame there are a block of 1000 thousand green squares set to equal (=) one orange square to indicate the size of an orange square]

=

One thousand dollars $1,000

Raising a child to age 17

[The title of this next item is below the block – the indications are shown from top to bottom, with lines indicating low and mid income, and the squares between low and high income are drawn in a lighter color]

Raising a child to age 17

Upper income $302,860

Middle income $206,920

Lower income $206,920

Vacation package from New England

[The title line of text is written below the next line of text which is also below the blocks – there is a bracket between the title and this other line:]

Vacation package from New England

All-inclusive one-week trip for two to St. Lucia resort (incl. flights) $3,204

Twenty week-long Hawaiian vacations $136,020

[The title line of text is written below these next two lines of text – these are again below each of the two sets of blocks – there is a bracket between the title and the other text]

Typical trip from US west coast

Typical week-long Hawaii trip for two (incl. flights) $6,801

Typical weekend Hawaii trip for two (incl. flights) $2,863

Cancer treatment including chemo

Cancer treatment including chemo $117,260

Estimated one-year Hogwarts cost (incl. tuition) $43,000

Seven-year Hogwarts degree $301,000

Average community college tuition $10,340 One year $2,580

Average in-state university tuition $28,920 One year $7,230

Golden Opulence ice cream sundae

Golden Opulence ice cream sundae $1,000

Average smartphone annual cost $1.320

Average used car $8,910

Average new car $27,230

High-end bicycle $1,500

One Starbucks latte per day $1.820

United States 2005 per capita income

United States 2005 per capita income $32,360

Switzerland 2005 per capita income $29,910

Germany 2005 per capita income $27,550

UK 2005 per capita income $23,240

France 2005 per capita income $16,400

China 2005 per capita income $3,540

Brazil 2005 per capita income $5,540

Small rural house

Small rural house $100,000

Typical new home $224,910

Daily sales of Minecraft $193,500

Average individual health insurance annual premium

Average individual health insurance annual premium $5,430

[The five blocks of this item are divided with the top four in lighter color and brackets indicate each group and are named]

Employer

Employee

Typing F-U-N-D-S $10,000

A daily pack of cigarettes for a year (NJ) $3,050

Waist deep half-room ball pit $2,400

All 30 bestselling game consoles (refurb, eBay) $2,640

Annual cost of car ownership

Annual cost of car ownership $3,650

[The title of this next item is below the blocks. These are divided in two, with the last two of the six blocks drawn in a lighter color. Lines go from each part with labels above the blocks]

Typical annual household spending $5,650

Home

Restaurants

Average household CC debt $9,960

Annual cost to carry that debt $2,090

Typical annual housing cost for various cities

[These items are singled out as they are in a frame.]

Typical annual housing cost for various cities

based on military's Basic Allowance for Housing for an E1 servicemember with no dependents

NYC $25,416

San Francisco $21,888

Boston $18,216

Los Angeles $17,640

DC $16,380

Chicago $13,664

Worcester $12,456

Houston $11,888

Minneapolis $10,908

Detroit $10,080

Salt Lake City $9,108

Scranton $8,60

Initial seat on Virgin Galactic suborbital flight

Initial seat on Virgin Galactic suborbital flight $200,000

Prince William and Kate Middleton’s wedding cake $78,000

Kate Middleton’s wedding dress $350,000

Flower cost for Prince William and Kate Middleton’s wedding $800,000

Value of an investment

[These items are singled out as they are in a frame.]

Value of an investment of $1,000/year

(Not changing with inflation) for 30 years at 5% annual interest:

[There is 30 block in three rows of ten from 1 to 30 years. The increasing investment is shown in the normal color, but the interest (when above $500) is shown in a brown color. Except for the last after 30 years – see below. There is also two additional blocks shown to the right – see below.]

1 year $1,000

5 years $5,526

10 years $12,850

15 years $21,580

20 years $33,070

25 years $47,730

30 years $66,440

[Right of the 30 years blocks are two brackets marking the top and the bottom half. The blocks in the top part are gray – this represents those that would have been brown for the other 29 years. Then there are three light orange in the middle, and the rest is the normal color. These squares are the $30,000 invested. The top part including the three light squares are labeled together as are the bottom orange squares:]

Cost of 3% inflation

Real value $27,370

[There are two blocks to the right of these 30 blocks. The top has 30 orange and 26 brown squares]

$1,000/yr for 30 years (inflation-adjusted) at a 4% real return (long-term stock + dividend average) $56,080

[The bottom block has 30 squares, only 12 orange the rest is drawn in the light color also used for the middle blocks for the 30 years blocks]

$30,000 saved in a mattress for 30 years.

[A bracket indicate the bottom orange squares]

Real value $12,360

[Below is the following note in light gray text]

Note: the reason the investment appears to lose ground against inflation is that only a portion of the $30,000 is earning interest in a given year, but the entire amount is effectively suffering from deflation. If the money were all invested from the start, it would earn a constant 5%-3%=2% return and beat inflation handily.

Total cost to buy and own selected vehicles for five years

[These items are singled out as they are framed by a light orange square with rounded corners]

Total cost to buy and own selected vehicles for five years

(Lighter blocks shown fuel cost, assuming 15,000 miles/year)

Honda Insight $27,874

Jeep Patriot $35,425

BMW Z4 $61,312

Toyota Camry $34,697

Honda CR-V $35,183

Hyundai Sonata $34,644

Nissan Cube $29,383

Toyota Prius $38,771

Honda Fit $28,745

Ford Explorer $43,524

smart for two $29,629

Chevy Volt $42,180

[For the Chevy squares the last ones to the right are light green and they are marked with a bracket labeled:]

Tax credit

Ford F-150 $48,734

Porsche 911 $91,590

[The next section inside the orange frame is singled out in another black frame:]

If gas were $10/gallon:

Toyota Prius $48,990

Honda Fit $45,233

Ford Explorer $69,076

smart for two $45,058

Chevy Volt $50,612

[For the Chevy squares the last ones to the right are light green and they are marked with a bracket labeled:]

Tax credit

Ford F-150 $77,111

Typical annual household income

[These items are singled out as they are in a frame]

Typical annual household income

Bottom 20% $10,200

Second 20% $24,800

Middle 20% $44,400

Fourth 20% $76,100

Top 10% $201,100

Top 1% $822,000

Top 1/500th $2,080,000

Median US household income

Median US household income $51,270

Cost per household served of US Rural Utilities Service program to expand broadband access $359,790

If I Had $1000000

[These first six items are singled out as they are framed by a light orange square with rounded corners]

Cost of the items the singer in “If I Had $1000000” would buy you in order to win your love $263,330

Furniture $21,160

Plymouth Reliant $3,000

Tree fort $2,120

Joseph Merrick’s remains N/A

(Held in Royal London Hospital collection and not available for purchase)

House $224,820

[The rest of the items are located in a small square with green inside. This square is zoomed up 1000 times and the items in this large white frame (that breaks the border of the original frame) are given with the green one dollar squares from the dollar section:]

Tiny fridge $99.08

Gourmet pre-wrapped sausages (2) $34.48

Kraft Dinner (two double servings) $3.06

Expensive ketchup $10.75

Faux fur coat $198.00

Limo ride to the store $186.59

Total lifetime income

Total lifetime income from age 25-65 at $50,000/year after 25% taxes (including Social Security) $1,500,000

Millions

Complete on 2014-06-17

[This section is to the right of the Thousands section below the Billions section. This section focuses on $1,000,000 to $1,000,000,000, with a large section on campaign contributions of American political presidential campaigns, values of expensive works of art and J. K. Rowling.]

Millions

[The Thousands section is zoomed down so the area is only 1/1000 of the size and is shown below the Millions title to the far left of the section - with lines indicating this zoom]

[The rest of this panel shows how much the individual items values compare to a million dollars. Next to each price in dollar will be drawn a number of gray squares equal to the number of million dollars in the amount - so for a 3,000,000 dollar item, like a 30-second Super Bowl ad slot there will be three squares. And next to a lady with a fortune of $1,000,000,000 (like J.K. Rowling) there will be 1000 squares.]

One million dollars

[Inside a frame there are a block of 1000 thousand orange squares set to equal (=) one gray square to indicate the size of a gray square]

=

One million dollars $1,000,000

Amount Dr. Evil thought he was demanding from the 1997 world

Amount Dr. Evil thought he was demanding from the 1997 world $6,630,000

Amount he was actually demanding $1,380,000

Most expensive production car (Bugatti Veyron) $2,400,000

Amount needed to live comfortably off investments $4,090,000

Most expensive car ever sold (1957 Ferrari 250) $16,390,000

Minecraft sales by October 2011 $56,780,000

Large city office building $100 million

Annual cost to run Wikipedia $18,500,000

30-second Super Bowl ad slot $3,000,000

EPA value of a human life $8,120,000

Six Million Dollar Man (2011 dollars) $29,870,000

Prince William and Kate Middleton’s wedding

[These items are singled out as they are in a frame. This is also part of a section in the thousands panel]

Prince William and Kate Middleton’s wedding

Flowers $800,000

Security $20,000,000

Total cost $800,000,000

$50,000 salary for 40 years after 25% taxes

[This first item was also given as the last item in the Thousands panel]

$50,000 salary for 40 years after 25% taxes $1,500,000

Lifetime cost to avoid changing your oil by abandoning your car and buying a new one whenever you hit 5.000 miles $3,270,000

Qianlong Chinese vase sold in 2010

Qianlong Chinese vase sold in 2010 $83,710,000

Leonardo’s Codex Leicester (bought by Bill Gates) $45,930,000

Estimated value of first-edition Gutenberg Bible $34,610,000

Double Eagle coin $9,330,000

(Alle destroyed uncirculated save a few stolen from the US Mint)

Treskilling Yellow postage stamp $2,780,000

(At $50 billion/lb possibly the world’s most expensive thing by weight)

1297 Magna Carta original coypy signed by Edvard I $21,890,000

Painting from The Card Players series (rumor) $250,000,000

[Below the next text in brackets are a square bracket encompassing the two items below ]

(Both bought by David Geffen)

Willem de Kooning’s “Woman III” (2006 auction) $168,780,000

Jackson Pollock’s “No. 5, 1948” (2006 auction) $153,440,000

Airbus A380 $264 million

Mona Lisa assessed value $730,660,000

Prizes

[These items are singled out as they are in a frame.]

Prizes

[The first text after each item is written in small gray font, but before the prize, which is the normal bold font.]

$64,000 in 1955

when “The $64,000 Question” first aired

$528,310

£1,000,000 in 1998

when the UK “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” aired

$2,270,000

$1,000,000 in 1999

when the US “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” aired

$1,330,000

$1,000,000 in 1955

when the TV show “The Millionaire” aired

$8,250,000

$1,000,000 in 1931

when the film “The Millionaire” opened

$14,530,000

Bitcoins

[The first text is written next to the normal gray squares in the bottom left corner of all the blocks. The rest of the blocks are light gray and the second line of text is written directly beneath all the squares]

Market value of all Bitcoins as of 11/2011 $22,819,797

Market value of all Bitcoins as at July 2011 peak price $210,000,000

Elections

[These items are singled out as they are framed by a light gray square with rounded corners]

Elections

[In this section the squares that directly belongs to the democrats are blue and those that belong to the republicans are red. If there are other groups they are light gray. If the subject of the squares is not directly related to one or the other group the squares are the normal gray color. These squares never mix with the other three colors in this Elections section.]

2012 presidential fundraising $188,260,000

as of 09/2011

[The squares are divided in to one blue block, six red and one light gray. The colored blocks are marked by the name they belong to. The blue is the last to be mentioned below the squares]

Herman Cain $5,380,000

Jon Huntsman $4,510,000

Michele Bachmann $9,870,000

Ron Paul $12,790,000

Rick Perry $17,200,000

Mitt Romney $32,610,000

Barack Obama $88,420,000

2008 presidential campaign fundraising $1,860,390,000

Excluding candidate Lee L. Mercer, Jr of Houston, who claimed, in his combined FEC filings, $900,005,507 in fundraising and $900,006,431 in campaign spending.

[The squares are divided in to three blue blocks, four red and one light gray all intermixed. The colored blocks are marked by the name they belong to. The text below – in the order it appears in normal reading order marks the gray block, then a red, blue, red, red, blue, red and blue:]

Other

Ron Paul $32,480,000

John Edwards $64,410,000

Rudy Giuliani $66,520,000

Mitt Romney $116,730,000

Barack Obama $799,670,000

John McCain $394,280,000

Hilary Clinton $259,050,000

2004 presidential campaign fundraising $1,006,810,000

[The squares are divided in to one red block, four blue and one light gray. The colored blocks are marked by the name they belong to. The text below – in the order it appears in normal reading order marks the four blue, then the gray and finally the red:]

Howard Dean $61,620,000

Wesley Clark $34,610,000

John Edwards $39,310,000

John Kerry $352,090,000

Other

George W. Bush $429,660,000

2000 presidential campaign fundraising $805,120,000

[The squares are divided in to four red blocks, two blue and one light gray. The colored blocks are marked by the name they belong to. The text below – in the order it appears in normal reading order marks the gray block, then red, red, blue, red, blue and red:]

Other

Pat Buchanan $37,440,000

John McCain $75,180,000

Bill Bradley $65,680,000

Steve Forbes $11,440,000

Al Gore $170,520,000

George W. Bush $247,100,000

2010 midterm elections fundraising

[The squares are divided in to on blue and one red block]

Democrats $815,000,000

Republicans $587,000,000

[The next section inside the gray frame is singled out in another black frame:]

2011-2012 Campaign donations by industry

[Below are six blocks. Each block is divided into blue and a red squares, and three of the blocks (the first two and the last) also has some light gray squares ordered in a line above the colored squares. Above the first group of blocks are written what each color means – gray, blue and red:]

(Other)

(To Democrats)

(To Republicans)

[Below each group is written the following:]

Finance industry $122,900,000

Organized labor $18,720,000

Energy industry $26,680,000

Lawyers and general lobbyists $57,590,000

Health industry $42,727,000

Electronics and communication industry $32,420,000

[For the last two groups of blocks the squares all have the normal gray color]

[The next section inside the gray frame is singled out in another black frame:]

Inaugurations

[Below are two groups of blocks. Each block is divided into two sections. These are designated on each side and below are the title of the blocks. The title first:]

Barack Obama’s 2009 inauguration $174,100,000

Festivities (private donors) $46,400,000

Federal + state + local government (mainly security) $127,700,000

George Bush’s 2005 inauguration $178,600,000

Festivities (private donors) $47,800,000

Federal + state + local government (mainly security) $130,800,000

Past presidential campaign fundraising

[Below are six groups of gray blocks in two columns. The text are written down through each column:]

1996 $559,810,000

1992 $521,480,000

1988 $606,300,000

1984 $429,860,000

1980 $434,220,000

1976 $664,160,000

A billionaire

A billionaire $1,000,000,000

Darell Issa (R-CA) net worth $304,000,000

Jane Harman (D-CA) net worth $294,000,000

John Kerry (D-MA) net worth $239,000,000

Mitt Romney net worth $210,000,000

Jon Huntsmann net worth $40,000,000

Average net worth of US senator $13,400,000

Average net worth of US representative $4,900,000

Value of a solid gold toilet

Value of a solid gold toilet (626 lbs) by year

[Below is a bar chart with squares representing the value for each year. Below the chart is written the years:]

1970 1980 1990 2000 2010

Value of a carry-on suitcase full of $100 bills (30,00 ct, 60lbs)

[Below is a bar chart with squares representing the value for each year. Below the chart is written the years:]

1970 1980 1990 2000 2010

[This next block has the bottom half in light gray squares, the rest is normal gray. Below is the title text, and left is the text representing the light gray squares. Title first:]

$1 per US resident $312,620,000

$1 per US household $117,290,000

Dubai Fountain $224,540,000

One F-22 raptor $154,500,000

One velociraptor $1,9300,000

(25% of Jurassic Park production budget amortized over three velociraptors)

[This next block has the left part in light gray squares, the rest is normal gray. Below is the title text, and below to the left is the text representing the light gray squares. Title first:]

$10 from every US resident $3,326,000,000

$10 from every US household $1,179,180,000

Professional rapper net worth

[These items are singled out as they are framed by a light gray square with rounded corners]

Professional rapper net worth

50 Cent $100,000,000

[Next to 50 Cent is a black frame, that give the values with the green dollar squares:]

50 Cent (stage name) $0,50

50 Cent (adjusted for inflation) $0,70

Birdman $100,000,000

Dr Dre $125,000,000

Jay-Z $450,000,000

Diddy $475,000,000

J. K. Rowling

J. K. Rowling $1,000,000,000

[Next to Rowling is a black frame, that uses the orange Thousands squares. The frame is zoomed down so the area is only 1/1000 of the size and is shown below and just to the right of Rowlings squares:]

J. K. Rowling has she become a rapper* $82,000

• Professional assessment by rapper/geek culture expert MC Frontalot

Annual hurricane forecast R&D funding

Annual hurricane forecast R&D funding $20,000,000

Hurricane forecast improvement funding since 1989 $440,000,000

Economic savings-during Hurricane Irene alone- due to limiting evacuations made possible by recent forecast advances $700,000,000

Loss in NewsCorp value over hacking scandal

Loss in NewsCorp value over hacking scandal $750,000,000

Marginal cost to launch one shuttle

Marginal cost to launch one shuttle $450,000,000

Total shuttle program per launch $450,000,000

Burj Khalifa $1,5210,000,000

New Yankee Stadium $1,545,000,000

One B-2 bomber $2,500,000,000

Billions

It may take long time to complete the transcript – as this section is by far the largest and most complicated!

[This section is to the right of the Dollars section and above both the Millions and Trillions section – This section is by far the largest. This section gets into larger scale finances, profits of various sectors, costs of natural disasters, and net worth of the richest people on the planet including Donald Trump.]

Billions

[The Millions section is zoomed down so the area is only 1/1000 of the size and is shown at in the left part and at the bottom of the Billions section with lines indicating this zoom]

[The rest of this panel shows how much the individual items values compare to a billion dollars. Next to each price in dollar will be drawn a number yellow squares equal to the number of billion dollars in the amount - so next to J. K. Rowling (1 billion dollars) there will be 1 square and next to the value of Facebook (70 billion dollars) there are 70 squares etc.]

[In this section the order of the items will be given in the three columns that are fairly clearly defined (i.e. not from top to bottom as a first rule - only within these three columns do this rule apply when possible.) The first column stops before the Economic vortex. And the second column stops at the Disaster section with Federal budget and war spendings as the other borders. Only the art and entertainment section breaches this line - but it belongs to the second column as it also belongs to the entire section below Federal spending. The rest belongs to the third column.]

Notes on terminology

[These items are singled out as they are in a frame right next to the Billions text.]

Notes on terminology:

In this chart, the word “typical” indicates a median value, while “average” indicates a mean.

When a source quotes a range of common values, their geometric mean is used.

One billion dollars

[Inside a frame there are a block of 1000 millions gray squares set to equal (=) one yellow square to indicate the size of a yellow square]

=

One billion dollars $1,000,000,000

Billionaires

[These items are singled out as they are framed by a light yellow square with rounded corners]

Billionaires

[There are seven sections singled out each in a separate black frames with white background. Between the three that are most to the left is a section that is singled out by a gray frame with rounded corners. The three surrounding white sections penetrates the gray area, so that five of the ten items are not written on the gray background, but on white background inside the black frames. The left most section surrounds the top two and the fifth item, the top right section includes the third item and the bottom right section includes tenth and last item. This transcript will write the ten items in the gray section first (also those on white background). Then it will take the three frames that penetrate the gray area – and not include those persons mentioned already, and finally the last four square frames that are to the far right in the yellow section. Below all of this is a final item which will be given at the end:]

[Inside the gray frame:]

The Ten Richest

Carlos Slim Helú and family $74,000,000,000

Bill Gates $56,000,000,000

Warren Buffett $50,000,000,000

Bernard Arnault $41,000,000,000

Larry Ellison $39,500,000,000

Lakshmi Mittal $31,100,000,000

Amancio Ortega $31,000,000,000

Eike Batista $30,000,000,000

Mukesh Ambani $27,000,000,000

Christiy Walton and family $26,5000,000,000

[The first black frame to the far left includes the 13 richest in this category. The two richest are included as the top two of the gray section, as is also the third richest who is number 5 on the top ten. These three will not be listed here below – which thus only includes the number 4-13 richest. The title is above the frame:]

The Ten Richest

Larry page $19,800,000,000

Sergey Brin $19,800,000,000

Jeff Bezon $18,000,000,000

Steve Ballmer $14,500,000,000

Mark Zuckerberg $13,500,000,000

Paul Allen $13,500,000,000

Steve Jobs (D) $8,300,000,000

Eric Schmidt $7,000,000,000

Sean Parker $1,600,000,000

Steve Case $1,300,000,000

[The second black frame right of the gray frame includes the 8 richest in this category. The richest are included as the third on the gray section. He will not be listed here below – which thus only includes the number 2-8 richest. The title is above the frame:]

Politicians and alleged evil plutocratic puppetmasters

Charles Koch $22,000,000,000

David Kock $22,000,000,000

[There is an error as 19 blocks not 18 is shown.]

Michael Bloomberg $18,100,000,000

George Soros $14,000,000,000

Silvio Berlusconi and family $7,800,000,000

Rupert Murdoch $7,600,000,000

[There is an error as only 4 blocks not 6 is shown.]

David Geffen $6,000,000,000

[The third black frame below the second frame includes the 4 richest in this category. The richest are included as the last and tenth on the gray section. She will not be listed here below – which thus only includes the number 2-4 richest. The title is above the frame:]

Walmart

Jim Walton $21,300,000,000

Alice Walton $21,200,000,000

S. Robson Walton $21,000,000,000

[The next four black frames is to the far right and do not have any one in the top 10. The title is above the frames:]

Fictional

(source: Forbes)

Carlisle Cullen $34,500,000,000

Scrooge McDuck $33,500,000,000

Bruce Wayne $6,500,000,000

Artemis Fowl $1,900,000,000

Fashion

Lilianne Bettencourt$23,500,000,000

Ralph Lauren $5,800,000,000

[There is an error as only 2 blocks not 3 is shown.]

Ronald Lauder $3,100,000,000

Art and media

George Lucas $3,200,000,000

Oprah Winfrey $3,200,000,000

[J. K. Rowling vs. rappers was also the subject of the Millions section]

Five wealthiest rappers combines $1,250,000,000

J. K. Rowling $1,000,000,000

Donald Trump

[There is an error as only 2 blocks not 3 is shown. Above for instance 1.9 billion is also shown with 2 blocks]

Donald Trump $2,700,000,000

[At the bottom is a large block of squares:]

Combines net worth of the world’s 1,210 billionaires $4,500,000,000,000

Harry Potter movie franchise

Harry Potter movie franchise total revenue $21,000,000,000

Treasure found in a temple in India 2011 $22,000,000,000

Box office revenue

[These items are singled out as they are framed by a light yellow square with rounded corners]

Box office revenue

Adjusted for monetary inflation but not ticket price inflation

[Highligted is misspelled in the comic:]

Hilighted: films which earned more than 2009’s Avatar

[Below is a bar chart that show the total box office revenue by year (for the US – not clear from the text, but it is US only). The years (starting at 2010) are shown down to the left, and the squares form a bar. Some movies (the box office record holder?) is mentioned, and it’s part of that years box office is shown by making the relevant part of the last squares in the bar become dark gray. These movies are mentioned by name, and from the name a line is marking which square/year they belong to. Those movies that have earned more than Avatar are highlighted in an even brighter yellow square. From about 1980 the data for total box office seems to disappear, the squares becoming brighter and brighter until in 1975 they are completely white, and in 1974 they are only white outlines of squares and then they are gone. However, the squares representing top box office movies still continue to be dark gray, and there continues to be box office hits mentioned all the way back to Snow White in 1937. First will be mentioned the given years from top to bottom – these are written just below the bigger five years markings (on the left), then a note written further left between the 1965 marking down to 1960, and finally all mentioned movies from top to bottom (these are on the right side of the bar chart)]

2010 2005 2000 1995 1990 1985 1980 1975 1970 1965 1960 1955 1950 1945 1940 1935

No annual box office data found

Avatar $783,510,000

The Dark Knight $547,520,000

Shrek 2 $516,610,000

The Phantom Menace $572,000,000

[The next is highlighted in yellow:]

Titanic $827,260,000

The Lion King $625,810,000

Jurassic Park $625,810,000

Ghostbusters $507,720,000

Return of the Jedi $686,710,000

[The next is highlighted in yellow:]

E.T. $996,580,000

The Empire Strikes Back $778,530,000

[The next five are highlighted in yellow:]

Star Wars $1,681,000,000

Jaws $1,067,510,000

The Exorcist $1,019,000,000

The Sound of Music $1,144,920,000

101 Dalmatians $1,131,310,000

[These two are not highlighted:]

Ben-Hur $561,090,000

The Ten Commandments $532,570,000

[The last four is highlighted in yellow:]

Bambi $1,391,000,000

Fantasia $1,146,000,000

Gone With the Wind $3,157,000,000

Snow White $2,841,700,000

Charity

[These items are singled out as they are framed by a light yellow square with rounded corners]

Charity

US annual charitable giving $294,850,000,000

[Below is two blocks of groups the first sorted by who the charity is given to. The squares of the first block are divided into 9 groups and each are named. The one named other is drawn in lighter colored squares]

To religious organizations $102,000,000,000

To foundations $33,450,000,000

To human services $26,850,000,000

To international affairs $15,980,000,000

To arts and culture $13,460,000,000

Other

To animals and environment $6,750,000,000

To educational organizations $42,240,000,000

To health organizations $23,140,000,000

To societal benefit organizations $24,570,000,000

Type of giving

[The bottom blocks are divided into 4 groups and each are named.]

Individual giving $214,650,000,000

Foundation grantmaking $41,500,000,000

Corporate giving $15,500,000,000

Bequests $23,140,000,000

Gates Foundation total giving since 1994

Gates Foundation total giving since 1994 $25,360,000,000

[The block of squares are divided in four, and each are labeled]

Global health

Grants

Development

US

Industry revenue

[There are two items next to each other singled out in separate black frames - both regarding industry revenue]

Book publishing industry revenue $28,320,000,000

[The block of squares are divided in five, and each are labeled]

Romance $1,380,000,000

Trade books $14,130,000,000

K-12 $5,570,000,000

Higher education $4,560,000,000

Professional $3,750,000,000

[Included in this frame is a small man with a red and white striped shirt, blue pants, a cane and a knit cap. He is known as Wally or Waldo (in the US) from the Where's Waldo books.]

Video game industry revenue $48,900,000,000

[The block of squares are divided in two, the smaller on the right are labeled]

United States $18,830,000,000

Education

[This section is complicated to define. First of all the title is written with a very large font below 5-6 groups of blocks. Some in black frames some not. Here are included everything beneath the two previous sections except the Foundations section which will follow below this one. The title will be written first, although at the very bottom, then the rest will be taken from the top]

Education

[The first items are singled out as it is in a frame below the industry revenue group.]

Harvard University

revenue

[The block of squares are divided in two and each are labeled]

Tuition, donations, and fees $1,425,000,000

Investments $7,900,000,000

[Below the block is written]

In other words, if Harvard completely eliminated tuition, it would mean roughly a 15% budget cut.

[The next tree items are not in a frame. The first are to the left (and below) the Harvard section, the other two are directly below that section. In all cases the title is below the block and this will be written first even though labeling text are written above]

[The first block of squares are divided in two and the top of the largest bottom group is drawn in a light yellow color. All three groupings are labeled. There is an error as the total of the two groups are 1 billion larger than the total written beneath the block. This also fits with the number of squares – there are 957 – matching the $956,800,000,000 by adding private and federal loans]

Student loans outstanding $955,800,000,000

Private $163,900,000,000

Federal $792,900,000,000

Defaulted federal loans $65,020,000,000

(Private total unknown)

[The next block of squares are divided in two, and the upper part is drawn in a light yellow color – this is labeled.]

Total spending on primary and secondary education in the US $612,470,000,000

Teacher salaries $295,810,000,000

[The last of the three blocks are not divided]

Total annual higher-education spending in the US $355,110,000,000

[The next item are singled out as it is in a frame – right above the huge Education heading at the bottom. The title is below the block, and the squares are divided in to 11 groups each are labeled. The center block is drawn in a light yellow color – it is the “other” section. After the title, the labels are written from top to bottom in three columns]

Endowments of the 63 wealthiest university $277,570,000,000

U. of Michigan $7,800,000,000

Columbia $7,800,000,000

Yale $19,400,000,000

Harvard $32,000,000,000

Texas A&M $7,030,000,000

The other 53

Northwestern $7,030,000,000

Stanford $16,500,000,000

MIT $9,900,000,000

U of Texas $16,610,000,000

Princeton $17,010,000,000

Foundations

[This section is next to the last frame from the Education section. The items are listed as a column:]

Gates Foundation $36,700,000,000

INGKA Foundation $36,000,000,000

Howard Hughes Medical Institute $14,800,000,000

Ford Foundation $13,800,000,000

John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation $6,100,000,000

Combined annual profit of the Fortune 500 companies

Combined annual profit of the Fortune 500 companies $708,600,000,000

Corporate revenue

[This section is a little complicated. The title is written above several groups of blocks - some in black frames some not. Here, however, are included all the blocks (frame or not) that includes the profit or loss squares. Each block of squares has either a section of the squares at the bottom left that are drawn in a dark gray color and are labeled profit or some of the squares in the top row of the block will be drawn in a lighter yellow color and are labeled loss.]

Corporate revenue

[First are included six items that are not in a frame – they start right below the heading. The profit squares are marked with a square label and a line goes to the top of the block where the label is. For loss the label is just written above the squares in brackets]

Walmart $421,800,000,000

$16,390,000,000 profit

ExxonMobil $354,700,000,000

$30,460,000 profit

Chevron $196,300,000,000

$19,020,000,000 profit

Fannie Mae $153,800,000,000

($14,010,000,000 loss)

GE $151,600,000,000

$11,640,000,000 profit

Berkshire Hathaway $136,100,000,000

$12,970,000,000 profit

[Then follows six groups of blocks that are singled out in separate frames – but there is no heading]

[Frame one at the top right of the heading - here the profit line stands beneath the title in brackets]

PepsiCo $57,840,000,000

($6,320,000,000 profit)

Coca-Cola $35,840,000,000

($11,800,000,000 profit)

[Frame two to the right of the previous frame - here the profit line stands beneath the title in brackets]

VIAS $8,100,000,000

($2,700,000,000 profit)

MasterCard $5,500,000,000

($1,850,000,000 profit)

[Frame three is below the first row of those blocks not in frames – to the right of the last two of those blocks. Here the profit/loss line is written as for those without frames]

General Motors $135,600,000,000

$6,170,000 profit

Ford $129,000,000,000

$6,560,000,000 profit

Chrysler $44,950,000,000

($653,000,000 loss)

[Frame four and five is below those blocks not in frames, to the left, one next to the other. Here the profit/loss line is written as for those without frames. First frame four:]

AT&T $124,600,000,000

$18,860,000 profit

Verizon $106,560,000,000

$2,550,000,000 profit

[Frame five]

Bank of America $134,200,000,000

($2,240,000,000 loss)

JP Morgan Chase $115,480,000,000

$17,370,000,000 profit

Citigroup $111,060,000,000

$10,600,000 profit

AIG $104,420,000,000

$7,790,000,000 profit

[The sixth and last frame is to the right of the two previous, below the third frame. The first item uses the square bracket to indicate profit on top of the block, the other three uses the format from the first frame where the profit line stands beneath the title in brackets]

HP $126,000,000,000

$8,780,000,000 profit

Apple $65,230,000,000

($14,010,000,000 profit)

Microsoft $62,480,000,000

($18,760,000,000 profit)

Google $29,320,000,000

($8,510,000,000 profit)

Combined pay at Wall St. banks and securities firms

[These three items are below the fourth and fifth frame from the Corporation section. They are not directly related]

Combined pay at Wall St. banks and securities firms $135,000,000,000

Mobile computing annual sales $220,000,000,000

Online spending in 2009 $251,070,000,000

US spending on lung cancer treatment

[These items are singled out as they are in a frame – but there is no general heading. The items are directly related to the US health care spending below, and is somewhat related to the NCAA budget to the right.]

US spending on lung cancer treatment $11,310,000,000

US spending on tobacco marketing $13,600,000,000

US spending on all cancer treatment $106,870,000,000

US spending on cigarettes $91,660,000,000

NCAA budget

NCAA budget $5,640,000,000

US health care spending

US health care spending (2005 data) $2,106,000,000,000

[The block is split in two groups with their separate headings below. The top and bottom are in normal yellow colored squares, but in between, towards the bottom, is a section of squares drawn in a lighter yellow color. Each of the three section thus created are labeled, with one label at the top, and two labels on each side – the labels will be given from top to bottom for each group]

[There is two errors in the first group. The sum of the three sections give $1,147,160,000,000, and the division between the bottom yellow and the light yellow is at the wrong place (the top part is correct). There are 111 squares (not 79) in the bottom section and thus only 250 (not 282) in the light yellow section]

Private $1,147,050,000,000

Private insurance $785,900,000,000

Out-of-pocket $282,260,000,000

Other $79,000,000,000

[There is also an error in the second group. The sum of the three sections only give $958,050,000,000. The total amount of block (in both groups) is correct, but there are 388 (not 387) in the top section]

Government $958,950,000,000

Medicare $387,070,000,000

Medicaid $351,980,000,000

Other $219,000,000,000

Total annual tax breaks to the five largest oil companies

[These items are listed in a column directly below the sixth frame from the Corporation section.]

Total annual tax breaks to the five largest oil companies $2,100,000,000

US annual oil and gas subsidies $41,000,000,000

Ethanol subsidies $5,000,000,000

Combined annual profits of the five largest oil companies $36,000,000,000

Combined annual profits of the ten largest health insurance companies $12,870,000,000

2010 lobbying $3,560,000,000

2005 lobbying $2,750,000,000

2000 lobbying $2,000,000,000

One B-2 bomber $2,100,000,000

[The B-2 bomber was also mentioned in the Millions panel]

Corporations

[This is the start of the second of the three large columns in the Billions section]

Corporations

by market capitalization

(combined value of all stock)

[There are 16 blocks, the five smallest is located at the top to the right, their titles are to the left of the blocks, these will be listed first as the order here goes from top to bottom. Then follows two rows of five blocks, and finally the by far largest block to the left will be listed, as it’s title is below the block (as for the other ten) and thus also the lowest in this group.]

Facebook 2011 valuation $70,000,000,000

LivingSocial 2011 valuation $2,980,000,000

AT&T attempted T-Mobile purchase $39,000,000,000

Zynga 2011 valuation $14,000,000,000

Facebook 2010 valuation $33,450,000,000

Apple $358,310,000,000

ExxonMobil $357,910,000,000

PetroChina $280,160,000,000

IBM $211,640,000,000

Microsoft $211,340,000,000

Bank of China $208,810,000,000

Chine Mobile $201,510,000,000

Royal Dutch Shell $199,780,000,000

Nestlé $193,700,000,000

Chevron $188,030,000,000

Saudi Aramaco (State-owned company – estimated market value) $2,940,000,000,000

Cost to buy the world a coke

[These items are singled out as they are in a frame – but there are no general heading. It is at the top to the right of Corporations]

Cost to but the world a coke (2011 wholesale prices) $2,240,000,000

Coca-Cola’s annual marketing budget $2,980,000,000

Cost to teach the world to sing (four half-hour lessons at $30 each) $840,000,000,000

Foreign aid

[These items are singled out as they are framed by a light yellow square with rounded corners– but there is no general heading. It is at the top to the right of the buy a coke section]

[The squares of the first block is divided in to four groups each of which are labeled. There is a cut and paste error, where the largest amount from the first group is reused on the smallest Other block. Also two of these groups use half a square (the two first of the three bottom groups). If the three numbers that are not clearly wrong are correct, then the last Other should be $1,480,000,000 (rather than $5.8 billion) and should have taken up 1.5 block (like the $1.3 billion does) rather than just one!]

US foreign military aid $11,010,000,000

Afghanistan $5,800,000,000

Israel $2,410,000,000

Egypt $1,320,000,000

Other $5,800,000,000

[The squares of the second block is divided in to four groups each of which are labeled. When summing up the four amounts $10,000,000 is missing]

US foreign humanitarian and economic aid $34,410,000,000

Iraq and Afghanistan $5,370,000,000

West Bank and Gaza $1,050,000,000

Africa (total) $8,850,000,000

Other $19,130,000,000

Ft. Knox gold reserves

[These items are listed to the right of the Foreign aid section – they are not directly related]

Ft. Knox gold reserves (November 2011 prices) $245,900,000,000

Unclaimed US treasury bonds $16,000,000,000

All the tea in China $4,210,000,000

State government spending

State government spending

[At the top right of the title there is a block of dark gray squares with a label, and under the title there is a legend next to a single dark gray square]

Total US states’ debt $46,000,000,000

shortfall

[The rest of the blocks are divided up into 50 groups each representing one of the 50 states. If the state have any debt this is represented by dark gray squares instead on only yellow squares. The groups are loosely shaped like the states they represents (when there are enough squares to make this possible) and then they are placed as close as possible to the position they would have according to the other states, but with plenty of space surrounding each group, forming a deform but recognizable shape of the US, with even Alaska in about the correct place. Only Hawaii has been moved closer (as it normally is on maps of the US states). Next to each state are written the official two letter abbreviations. Here these are listed in the columns the states abbreviations arrives through this jigsaw puzzle]

AK WA OR CA HI ID NV AZ MT UT NM WY CO ND SD NE KS OK TX MN IA MO AR LA IL MS WI IN AL MI OH KY TN GA WV FL PA VA SC NC NY MD DE VT NJ NH CT ME MA RI

[Below the map arrives the tip of a gray arrow which comes up from State tax group in the US household income section]

Corporate tax deduction

[This item are to the right of the top of the US map from state spendings. The squares are divided in to 7 groups. The title (written first) is below the block. Above is a note written in a light gray font. One of the groups are belongs to other tax deductions. This is written below the block, the other groups are named from left to right, with the first and last in line with the block, the rest written above. Here the items will be named in the order their group of squares appear from left to right – no matter where the text is written. There is a small error so there are 25 squares for the 24.43 billion and then only 41 squares for the 47.74 billion that are left for others. That last square should have been in the other group.]

Corporate tax deduction $125,180,000,000

(Note: Some of the corporate deductions are very technical, and even with the help of an accountant, I had trouble making sense of them. The text below is my best attempt at an English interpretation of the legalese.)

Reduced tax on first $10 million of corporate income $3,240,000,000

Delay of taxes on ‘income’ made from defaulting on a debt (Temporary stimulus measure) $21,390,000,000

Temporary change to equipment depreciation rules allowing more (and sooner) deductions for the purchase of new equipment $24,430,000,000

Other

Clean energy, space, science, and tech R&D $13,900,000,000

Miscellaneous rules for international corporate finance $6,800,000,000

Foreign corporation income financing rules $13,680,000,000

Individual tax deductions

[This item are right below the Corporate tax deduction. The squares are divided in to 29 groups and each are labeled. The title (written first) is below the block. Below the title is a note written in a light gray font (this text will follow after the title). One of the groups belongs to other tax deductions – the squares of this group are drawn in a light yellow color. Most of the groups are labeled by having a square bracket single the group out and a line from the bracket goes to the label. In cases where the label can be written so close to the squares that there can be no doubt where it belongs there is no bracket. There is no easy way to decide which order to transcript these items. Here below they will be listed clockwise starting from the Employee fringe benefits in the top right corner, and thus finish with the Other group.]

Individual tax deductions $964,970,000,000

These are types of income, or uses of income, which the government has partly or fully exempted from tax, often to encourage some activity. This can be thought of as ‘spent’ tax revenue, although it’s not quite that simple; there’s no guarantee removing the deduction would add that amount to revenue, because the presence of the deduction may be affecting taxpayer’s spending habits.

Employee fringe benefits $6,690,000,000

Scholarships $2,130,000,000

Property taxes $15,710,000,000

Employer-provided transportation $3,850,000,000

Retirement accounts $24,630,000,000

Cafeteria plans $26,760,000,000

State and local bonds $19,560,000,000

Company daycare $3,140,000,000

College and university credits $12,060,000,000

Mortgage interest $92,040,000,000

Medicare benefits $55,850,000,000

Child care $55,850,000,000

Employer health plans $107,140,000,000

Making Work Pay (ending) $60,510,000,000

First-time homebuyer credit $8,820,000,000

Military benefits $5,880,000,000

Veterans’ benefits $5,570,000,000

Life insurance benefits $25,750,000,000

Capital gains death exclusion $25,750,000,000

Social security and railroad retirement $27,170,000,000

Home sale capital gains $15,200,000,000

Small business health insurance $1,620,000,000

Federal employee expenses abroad $7,910,000,000

EITC (anti-poverty low-income tax credit) $78,760,000,000

Donations to charity $39,130,000,000

Capital gains (investment income) $78,760,000,000

Pension contributions $84,940,000,000

State and local tax $31,120,000,000

Other $64,970,000,000

[There are several mistakes in the above blocks group sizes and in at least one number. The EITC number is the same as that for the Capital gains, but there are only 57 squares for EITC not the 79 expected as for CG It looks like a cut and paste error. There are two other cases where two numbers next to each other are the same: Medicare & Child care and Life insurance & Capital gains. But maybe Randall had put those next to each other for that reason? The number of blocks is correct for the three of them and there is only missing one block for Medicare (55 instead of 56). Summing up all the numbers shows that the total (987.27 billion) is 22.3 billion dollars too large. This would be corrected if the EITC was 56.46 billion dollars – which should then only have given 56 not 57 blocks. But this shows that this could possibly have been the only wrong number? On the other hand there are six other places where the number of squares does not match the number of billions. The four of them are only one square – in all cases one too little. One has just been mentioned above – the other three are Retirement accounts (24 not 25), Cafeteria plans (26 not 27) and State and local bonds (19 not 25). The last two lies next to each other and one has three too many the other three too few. So this is probably a case of moving three squares to the wrong group. It is Employer health plans (104 not 107) and Making Work Pay (64 not 61). As the total number of squares sum up to the correct number (965), the four with one square to little, is probably just a decision made as there were too many groups that needed to be rounded up, and no half squares are used in this block! But the two with three squares is a mistake.]

US household income

[This section, located right below the Corporations, can be considered to be the centerpiece of the entire comic. It is also by far the most complicated single block with descriptions all the way around. The block is divided into five equally large rows. And then these are again divided into three groups, not equally this time. Among these fifteen groups are the five groups in the second “column” collected together in a gray shade that at the top turns into an arrow that show that this is State taxes and the arrow point to the US jigsaw map of State government spending. The last five groups in the third “column” are also collected together in a gray shade (clearly separate from the State tax gray shade, but right next to it). At the top of this shade it is clear that this is the Federal taxes. The shade has five arrows coming out like fingers near the shade and then turning in to arrow heads that all have moved (mainly down) to the part of the Federal spending block to the right that are called Taxes raised. Furthermore the entire block of squares – are again divided by four black frames where the second are larger than and encompasses the first, and so on up to the fourth. The fourth do not contain the entire block! Only those squares outside all four frames are the normal yellow color, the other squares are drawn in a lighter yellow color, except for those in the smalles frame – these squares are drawn in a gray/yellow color. There are explanations over each of the three columns (one of them being part of the title), explanation to the left next to each of the five rows, and explanations below and to the left of the four black frames. Finally there is a note on methodology. The transcript below will write the text in this order. First the top from left to right, and then down along the left side, then along the bottom, and up the right side. Finally the note will be taken last, although it is between two of the explanations for the frames!]

US household income $10,520,910,000,000

This section shows the money made every year in the US, broken into five pools of about $2 trillion each. The pools are sorted by income level–the top $2 trillion is made by a small number of wealthy households (the “one percent”), while the bottom $2 trillion represents the combined annual income of the poorer half of the country.

[The note here below is written in a very small font]

Note: Figures are only estimates–these statistics were computed using data from Congressional Budget Office analysis of 2007 incomes, and have been subject to the normalizations detailed below.

State taxes

Unlike federal taxes, state taxes are regressive–the poor pay a higher percentage of their income than the rich. This is because sales taxes, a large component of state revenues, fall disproportionately on the poor.

$642,030,000,000

Federal taxes

effective total federal taxes paid after deductions and tax credits

$2,192,180,000,000

[In the next part, down along the left part of the block, small yellow houses with a blue door and red roof with a chimney indicate one million households. Only for the first of the five rows is there need for less than a full million (1,6) and in this case the second faded out house should indicate a part of a million. They should represent 1,6 house, but looks more like 1,3 (the 1.6 million households equals 1.3% of the population...?) For the other four the numbers of households are only given in millions and there are one house pr. million except for an error in the bottom 50% where there are only drawn 61 houses to represent 63 million households. The question is if it is the 61 that is the correct amount. It seems easier to make all four percentages above the bottom one fit if there should be only 61 million in that group. The 116,6 drawn houses (instead of 118,6 form the numbers) also seems to fit with the 117 million dollars it would give if you had one dollar from every US household (in the Millions section). On the other hand Randall disagrees with himself in the Millions section as there are 118 million households in the 10 dollar from every US household block…? From top to bottom:]

Who makes this money?

Note: the income ranges here are only rough estimates–see below.

The 1%

This pool of income is split among 1.6 million households (1.3%)

Households in this group typically earns $400,000/year or more

[Below the text about yearly salary is the small houses located for each of the five groups.]

High incomes

This pool of income is split among 9 million households (8%)

Households in this group typically earn between $150,000 and $400,000/year

Upper incomes

This pool of income is split among 18 million households (16%)

Households in this group typically earn between $90,000 and $150,000/year

Upper middle incomes

This pool of income is split among 27 million households (23%)

Households in this group typically earn between $55,000 and $90,000/year

The bottom 50%

This pool of income is split among 63 million households (roughly the poorer half)

Households in this group typically earn less than $55,000/year

[Now follows the explanations on the four black frames that each take up an uneven amount from each row. From the explanation text goes a black line into the relevant frame. Starting with the smallest frame – with gray/yellow squares with text below the block, and then taking the other three in size up till the largest, these have the text to the right, and are listed from bottom and up:]

Required for poverty-line income

This is the amount which must be set aside from each pool in order to leave $22,350–roughly a poverty-line income–for each family in that pool.

If taxes cut into this region, then it forces the average after-tax income for the pool below the $22,350. (Of course, many families in this group makes less than that already.)

Required for a middle class income

This is the amount which must be set aside from each pool in order to leave $44,700–roughly double the poverty-line income–for each family in that pool.

If taxes cut into this region, then it forces the average after-tax income for the pool below that line. In the bottom quintile, the average income is already below this so the entire pool is marked off.

Amount needed to give everyone an income over $100,000

Amount which must be left in the pool to keep the average income above $100,000 (See descriptions below for details)

Amount needed to give everyone an income over $250,000

Amount which must be left in the pool to keep the average income above $250,000 (See descriptions below for details)

[Finally the note:]

Note on methodology: these totals were calculated from an analysis of the 2007 CBO report on effective federal tax rates by income. There were some mismatches between figures on total income from various sources, and between CBO tax rates and federal revenue. The income totals here were adjusted for inflation and then scaled slightly to match federal tax revenue. This should only affect the total reported income, and not the distribution of the tax burden or the rough makeup of the quintiles.

Trillions

Complete on 2014-06-14

[This section is below the Billions section to the right of the Millions section – Global financial status is described here. It discusses derivatives, liquid assets, public debt by nation and GDP by continent, culminating with the total economic production of the human race to date.]

Trillions

[The Billions section is zoomed down so the area is only 1/1000 of the size and is shown at the top of the Trillions section with lines indicating this zoom]

[The rest of this panel shows how much the individual items values compare to a trillion dollars. Next to each price in dollar will be drawn a number cyan squares equal to the number of trillion dollars in the amount - so next to the value of all gold ever mines (9 trillion dollars) there will be 9 squares etc.]

[In this section the order of the items will be given in the three columns that are clearly defined (i.e. not from top to bottom as a first rule.)]

Size of derivatives market by year

[The first five items are singled out as they are framed by a light cyan square with rounded corners]

Size of derivatives market by year

1988 $3,090,000,000,000

1995 $26,690,000,000,000

2001 $86,390,000,000,000

2005 $227,260,000,000,000

2009 $439,000,000,000,000

[The next section inside the cyan frame is singled out in another black frame:]

Size of credit default swap market by year (included in the derivatives)

2001 $1,150,000,000,000

2005 $19,350,000,000,000

2007 $66,280,000,000,000

2009 $31,350,000,000,000

US household net worth

[These items are singled out as they are in a frame. The title stands at the bottom to the right]

US household net worth $58,740,000,000,000

[The first thrid part of the cyan squares are lighter and are labeled with a square bracket, similar there is two other bracket, one that covers all 58,5 squares, except for the last 1.5 which is marked by the other of these two brackets. In this order they read:]

Richest 1% $19,620,000,000,000

Richer half% $57,270,000,000,000

Poorer half% $1,470,000,000,000

Total debt in the US

[These items are singled out as they are in a frame. The title stands at the bottom]

Total debt in the US $36,560,000,000,000

[The squares are divided in to four – three of which are labeled with a square bracket, and for the last the text is written next to it]

Household $13,560,000,000,000

Federal government $9,510,000,000,000

State and local government $2,500,000,000,000

Business $10,980,000,000,000

World GDP

[These items are singled out as they are in a frame.]

World GDP $62,900,000,000,000

[The squares for each continent are shaped as best as possible (if there are enough squares) as the continent they represents]

[For North America the squares not representing the US are in a lighter color, one below (Mexico) and two above (Canada). Next to the squares representing the US is written the US GDP]

North America $17,850,000,000,000

United States $14,530,000,000,000

[The squares representing the EU are in the normal cyan color – the value stands above the squares. Below is the total for all of Europe – these extra squares are in the lighter color.]

EU $16,240,000,000,000

Europe (incl. Russia and Turkey) $20,130,000,000,000

Asia $17,530,000,000,000

South America $3,070,000,000,000

Africa $1,610,000,000,000

Oceania $1,310,000,000,000

One trillion dollars

[Inside a frame there are a block of 1000 thousand yellow squares set to equal (=) one cyan square to indicate the size of a cyan square]

=

One trillion dollars $1,000,000,000,000

World total proven…

[This section includes other items than those belonging to the total proven items. But for those three blocks that do belong to this - there are a part of the blocks drawn in a lighter color, which are marked with a square bracket and labeled US reserves:]

World total proven oil reserves (November 2011 prices) $131,960,000,000,000

US reserves $20,580,000,000,000

World total proven coal reserves (2011 central Appalachian prices) $72,850,000,000,000

US reserves $20,020,000,000,000

World total proven natural gas reserves (2011 NYMEX prices) $21,470,000,000,000

US reserves $930,470,000,000

World total liquid assets $77,000,000,000,000

[The next block is split in four groups. The text has (by a mistake) been shifted up so some of the title text is inside the blocks. Also the two brackets that mark the main part and the three smaller parts have been shifted, so the main parts bracket is far away from the blocks, and the bracket that should indicate the three small parts only seems to indicate the two upper parts!]

All US real estate $28,380,000,000,000

Home $23,010,000,000,000

Commercial (includes stores, apartments, industrial, etc.) $5,370,000,000,000

Value of all gold ever mines (late 2011 prices) $9,120,000,000,000

GDP chart

[This section is a timeline bar chart of the world’s total GDP as function of year. The years are stated below the bottom of the chart:]

1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010

[Above the time lines are three types of blocks stacked to show the total GDP each year. At the bottom of the block bars are gray blue blocks, above them the normal cyan colored blocks and above them again lighter colored blocks. After the last bar at 2010 are three square brackets indicating what the three colors represent (there are no blocks until 1940, then only dark block until about 1950 where the cyan colored block fade in, and first in 1982-1983 do the lighter blocks fade in]

US federal government

GDP (total economic productivity) of the US (minus government)

GDP (total economic activity) of the world (minus US)

[Above the bar chart two events are marked above the given year]

1991 recession

2008 global financial crisis

Total public debt

[This section is one long column]

Total public debt

(Note: US figures are from 2011, while the other use 2010 debt in 2011 dollars, which is likely an underestimate.)

ES (total) $13,340,000,000,000

[For US the debt is split in two, the normal cyan color, and then a subsection in lighter colored blocks]

United States $10,200,000,000,000

(Plus internal government borrowing of $4,740,000,000,000)

Japan $8,630,000,000,000

Germany $2,480,000,000,000

Italy $2,140,000,000,000

India $2,140,000,000,000

China $1,907,000,000,000

France $1,767,000,000,000

United Kingdom $1,654,000,000,000

Brazil $1,281,000,000,000

Canada $1,130,000,000,000

Spain $834,000,000,000

Mexico $584,860,000,000

Greece $460,180,000,000

Total economic production

Estimated total economic production of the human race (so far) $2,396,950,000,000,000

(roughly three-fifths of it since 1980)