985: Percentage Points

Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb.
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Percentage Points
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.
Title text: 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.

Explanation

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.

A line on each of the issues that Grayton fictionally 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 War on Christmas - The War on Christmas is a not a real war, it is simply Christians 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!

On To the Names:

  • Tracy Morgan is an actor in the TV Show 30 Rock, who plays 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 Sarah Palin (in separate incidents).
  • Josh Wilkes Booth is the person who assassinated Abraham Lincoln. He was a sympathizer with the Confederate cause and was for slavery and all its trappings.
  • 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.

Ok, finally to the numbers:

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.

Transcript

[An average news anchor reading news copy of below average intelligence appears on a TV, with one person watching it in utter disgust]

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%.

I hate the ambiguity created when people don't distinguish between percentages and percentage points.


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Discussion

Our study shows that only 5% of people know the difference between percentages and percentage points. This is 50% lower than in 2009. --DiEvAl (talk) 06:30, 16 August 2013 (UTC)

Actually, penis size based tax is a brilliant idea. You only have to tax proportional to size, and, now comes the utterly clever part, let the male citizen self-declare his penis size. Voila, tax flow will always be higher than planned. 108.162.230.89 17:58, 10 September 2014 (UTC)

I am glad that under this system my tax burden would be unashamedly miniscule! Which is probably something no one wanted to know! -Pennpenn 162.158.2.221 06:15, 15 June 2015 (UTC)
  You've overlooked the fact that there is no reference to whether the measurement would be plus or minus and where the measurement would be taken. The tax could be on those with small (or no) penises. And to do it that way would make sure the tax included both those with and those without a penis.

Perhaps age could be a factor and of course shrinkage must be taken into consideration. Jakee308 (talk) 11:21, 16 June 2015 (UTC)

I was actually 108.162.230.89's idea, not what's in the comic. That concept was self declaring, so no measurement, and proportional, so "larger size = higher tax". -Pennpenn 162.158.2.221 23:54, 18 June 2015 (UTC)