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| | | title = Percentage Points | | | title = Percentage Points |
| | | image = percentage_points.png | | | image = percentage_points.png |
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| | | titletext = Grayton also proposed making college scholarships available exclusively to sexually active teens, amnesty for illegal immigrants who create room for themselves by killing a citizen, and a graduated income tax based on penis size. He has been endorsed by Tracy Morgan, John Wilkes Booth's ghost, and the Time Cube guy. | | | titletext = Grayton also proposed making college scholarships available exclusively to sexually active teens, amnesty for illegal immigrants who create room for themselves by killing a citizen, and a graduated income tax based on penis size. He has been endorsed by Tracy Morgan, John Wilkes Booth's ghost, and the Time Cube guy. |
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| | ==Explanation== | | ==Explanation== |
| − | Cueball is watching a news story about a (fictional) Senator Grayton and his campaign for the then-upcoming 2012 election. After a series of absurd statements Grayton has lost a substantial number of prospective voters, but the news anchor's failure to specify between percentage and percentage ''points'' causes a little ambiguity that gets on Randall's nerves.
| + | Senator Grayton is a fictional name, made up for this comic, which is a bit surprising as the names used in xkcd are usually references to something. |
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| − | Senator Grayton is a fictional character, made up for this comic; which is unusual for xkcd, as it typically uses real-world references (indeed, three real-world names are mentioned in the title text). Given the frankly absurd, and in some cases illegal nature of Grayton's campaign promises, using a fictional character was probably necessary to avoid defaming any real world politicians.
| + | A line on each of the issues that Grayton fictionally supports: |
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| − | The issues that Grayton supports: | + | *Tax Breaks to Drunk Drivers - Grayton proposed to give money back on their taxes for people who have been convicted of a DUI or DWI. Driving Under the Influence or Driving While Intoxicated |
| | + | *Predator Drones and the {{w|Christmas controversy|War on Christmas}} - The War on Christmas is a not a real war, it is simply {{w|Christian}}s who believe that non-Christians are trying to get rid of Christmas trees, Christmas music and the endless barrage of Christmas-themed nonsense we get from Thanksgiving to Christmas. I don't know how his support would go down if he supported unmanned Predator Drones to destroy people who hate Christmas, knowing America. (Jokes!) |
| | + | *College Scholarships to Sexually Active Teens - Not sure how they would test for this on the scholarship application, but it is funny nonetheless. |
| | + | *Illegal Immigrants Who Murder - This is an argument for immigration, but only if they make "room" and possibly an open job for themselves by getting rid of another person. This one is pretty evil. |
| | + | *Income Tax Based on Penis Size - Wow, this one would never pass! |
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| − | *Tax breaks for drunk drivers: Grayton proposes giving those who have been convicted of a {{w|DUI}} or DWI (i.e. Driving Under the Influence or Driving While Intoxicated) money back on their taxes, when those infractions are typically severely penalized, as drunk driving has resulted in numerous deaths.
| + | On To the Names: |
| − | *{{w|Predator drones}} and the {{w|Christmas controversy|War on Christmas}}: The War on {{w|Christmas}} is not a real war; it is simply the perception by some {{w|Christian}}s that non-Christians are trying to replace traditional Christmas imagery with more inclusive and generic holiday customs. No politicians have explicitly announced their support of the "War on Christmas," and the idea that one would not only do so, but would also want to use drones—ostensibly to harm or possibly kill people—in the effort is an absurd exaggeration of a relatively harmless culture war.
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| − | The term {{w|percentage point}} is used to overcome an ambiguity when comparing two percentages.
| + | *{{w|Tracy Morgan}} is an actor in the TV Show {{w|30 Rock}}, who plays {{w|Tracy Jordan}}, he is known for his outlandish statements on politics and everything else in the world. He has been reprimanded for controversial comments on homosexuals and {{w|Sarah Palin}} (in separate incidents). |
| | + | *{{w|Josh Wilkes Booth}} is the person who assassinated {{w|Abraham Lincoln}}. He was a sympathizer with the {{w|Confederate}} cause and was for slavery and all its trappings. |
| | + | *{{w|Time Cube}} Guy is Gene Ray, also known as Otis E. Ray. He has a website known as Time Cube (Thanks Wikipedia) where he sets out his personal model of reality, which he calls Time Cube. He suggests that all of modern physics is wrong, in addition to claiming religion to be evil, specifically Christianity, and the idea of family is poisoning children. |
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| − | '''Reduction of a stated number by a percentage'''
| + | Ok, finally to the numbers: |
| − | :When the original value is given as a number, there is no ambiguity. If that 20% were of a sample size of 1 million, the starting number could be directly stated at 200,000. And thus, in the statement below, the only possible conclusion is that now only 162,000 people (81%, i.e. 100% minus that 19%, of the 200,000) approve of Grayton.
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| − | :''Previously 200,000 people approved of Senator Grayton, and then his approval rating dropped by 19%.'' | |
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| − | '''Reduction of a percentage by a percentage'''
| + | If his polling is at 20% and drops by 19%, without specifying percentage points, that means that his support has only dropped 3.8 percentage points, because 19% of 20% is only 3.8%. That would mean after all his outrageous statements, his support dropped from 20% to 16.2%. However, if they had said his 20% polling dropped 19 percentage points, that would mean his support has dropped to 1%. Therefore, the distinction is important. |
| − | :When the original approval rating is given as a percentage (20% in the comic), then a reduction of 19% has two possible meanings:
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| − | :1) Of the 20% who previously approved (200,000 people), 19% ''of those'' no longer approve. In this case the result is 162,000 as in the above example.
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| − | :2) Compared to the original results, 19% fewer of the entire original sample approve. In this case only 1% of the 1 million now approve, equal to 10,000 people.
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| − | If using the second method of comparing percentages, the approvals rating should be described as having dropped by 19 percentage points. In reality, the distinction between the two methods is often overlooked, leading to confusion.
| + | ==Transcript== |
| − | | + | [An average news anchor reading news copy of below average intelligence appears on a TV, with one person watching it in utter disgust] |
| − | The caption's issue with "percentage" versus "percentage points" is that if Grayton's 20% approval rating drops by 19%, that means that his support has only dropped 3.8 percentage points since 19% of 20% is only 3.8%. That would mean that even after all his outrageous statements, his support dropped only from 20% to 16.2%. However, if the news reports that his 20% approval rating dropped 19 ''percentage points'', that means his support has dropped to 1%, which appears to be more accurate given Grayton's egregious policy decisions and the description of his campaign as having "imploded."
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| − | The punchline to all this is that Randall is more bothered by the "percent" ambiguity than by Grayton's appalling policy plans.
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| − | References in the title text:
| + | News Anchor: Senator Grayton's campaign has imploded following the candidate's promise to give tax breaks to drunk drivers and to authorize the use of unmanned Predator drones in the War On Christmas. Grayton had been polling at 20%, but his support has since plunged by 19%. |
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| − | *{{w|Tracy Morgan}} is an actor who plays Tracy Jordan in the TV Show ''{{w|30 Rock}}''. He has been reprimanded for controversial comments on homosexuals and {{w|Sarah Palin}} (in separate incidents).
| + | I hate the ambiguity created when people don't distinguish between percentages and percentage points. |
| − | *{{w|John Wilkes Booth}} is the person who assassinated {{w|Abraham Lincoln}}. He was a {{w|Confederate}} sympathizer and supported slavery. The mention of his ghost could also be a reference to King Falls AM, an audio drama which features his ghost multiple times.
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| − | *"The {{w|Time Cube}} Guy" would be Otis Eugene "Gene" Ray. To put things ''very'' politely (as Mr. Ray was a very angry man with severe schizophrenia), he created a website known as Time Cube where he set out his personal model of reality, which he called Time Cube. He suggested that all of modern physics is wrong, in addition to claiming that religion is evil, specifically Christianity, and that the idea of family is poisoning children. Ray passed away in 2015.
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| − | *College scholarships to sexually active teens: Many people think adolescents should not engage in sexual activity, let alone be encouraged to do so by college scholarships. This is the opposite of {{w|Abstinence-only sex education|abstinence programs}}, which encourage teens not to be sexually active until marriage.
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| − | *Illegal immigrants who create room for themselves by killing a citizen: {{w|Illegal immigration to the United States|Illegal immigration}} is a highly controversial topic in the United States. One argument against illegal immigration is that illegal immigrants are taking jobs away from American citizens. Proponents of immigration assert that this is not the case, since more people in the overall economy creates jobs and brings in more tax revenue. Neither group would be in favor of illegal immigrants murdering citizens even though it would cause no net gain or loss in population.
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| − | *Graduated income tax based on penis size: Many people are sensitive about their penis size and would probably consider the measurement of their penises for tax assessment purposes an enormous embarrassment and invasion of privacy. Even the scenario in which those with relatively smaller penises would be levied less tax than those with larger penises would probably not be sufficient for them to accept this policy, and even if they did, those with larger penises would probably consider this policy to be unfair. And the alternative—a scenario in which ''larger'' penises pay less taxes—would be both unfair and incredibly demeaning. Additionally, it is also entirely unclear as to how tax laws would apply to anyone without a penis in this scenario.
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| − | ==Transcript==
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| − | :[Cueball is sitting in an armchair watching TV while listening to a news report coming from the TV as shown by a zigzag line.]
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| − | :Voice from TV: Senator Grayton's campaign has imploded following the candidate's promise to give tax breaks to drunk drivers and to authorize the use of unmanned Predator drones in the War On Christmas. Grayton had been polling at 20%, but his support has since plunged by 19%.
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| − | :[Caption below the panel:]
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| − | :I hate the ambiguity created when people don't distinguish between percentages and percentage points.
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| | {{comic discussion}} | | {{comic discussion}} |
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| − | [[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
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| − | [[Category:Comics featuring real people]] <!-- in title text -->
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| | [[Category:Politics]] | | [[Category:Politics]] |
| − | [[Category:Math]]
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| − | [[Category:Penis]]
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