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This is Part 2 of our annual collection of dollar values. Part 1 appeared in our issue of February 5, 2004. The data are presented for whatever amusement, amazement, or irony they may provide.National Institute of Health funding to study how gay Mexican immigrants assimilate into the U.S. gay community: $517,428. Cost of the Government Printing Office to print the federal 2003 budget: $505,370. Typical sales of tobacco annually to inmates in a large prison: $500,000. Median price of a home in Orange County, Calif.: $460,000. National Institute of Health funding to study the risk of sexually transmitted diseases among Moscow prostitutes: $317,739.
Price of a 20-seat luxury suite for Chicago Bears football games: $300,000. Income required to put a family in the top income-tax bracket: $292,913. Annual pay for top-rated 777 captains at Delta Airlines: $275,000. Salary offered to recruit a CEO for the Girl Scouts of the USA: $250,000. Average earnings of emergency-room physicians: $218,470. Cost of a full-page advertisement in the Wall Street Journal: $180,000. Annual salary of a U.S. senator: $158,000. Median resale price of a single-family home: $157,800. Annual salary for top pilots at American Airlines: $157,000. Cost per foot of length to build the 3,400-ft Alfred Zampa Memorial Bridge in California: $117,647. Average salary of air-traffic controllers, excluding overtime: $106,000. Average income of skiers and snowboarders: $96,000. Average salary of veterinarians in 2001: $84,000.
Net worth of the typical middle-class household: $74,000. Typical salary of an experienced funeral director: $48,400. Annual salary of beginning pilots at Delta Airlines: $48,000. Typical annual salary for an experienced embalmer: $34,730. Annual salary of beginning pilots at American Airlines: $31,000. Typical starting annual salary for a mortuary worker: $24,000. Cost to an in-state resident for tuition, room, and board for one year at Penn State University: $16,958. Poverty level for a family of three: $15,300.
Price of a 50-in., high-definition, plasma-display television set: $7,500. Cost of schooling an average K-12 student for one year: $7,000. Average cost of a funeral: $6,160 with casket and burial vault. Cost for a mother to give birth in a Cleveland hospital: $5,980. Cost per day for staying in a semiprivate room in a Cleveland hospital: $3,349. Daily fee a psychologist charged the U.S. Postal Service to talk about stress: $3,000. Average cost of a cremation and urn: $2,600. Amount the average household spent on Christmas gifts in 2001: $1,042. Cost of a cremation without service or urn: $1,000. Average funeral home profit on a funeral: $750.
Typical monthly lease payment on a Ford Expedition XLT: $715. Average funeral-home profit on a cremation: $600. Average amount spent to buy a television set: $590. Average amount the White Star Line paid in compensation for each life lost on the Titanic: $430. Cost for a cell-phone company to acquire each new customer: $339. Average cost to have H&R Block prepare your federal, state, and local tax returns: $121. Average cost for Roto-Rooter to unclog a sink drain: $89. Amount an average shopper spends during a trip to a mall: $75. Portion of the $85 fine for traffic-light photo radar that goes to Redflex Traffic Systems, developer of the system: $50. Average spending on Halloween by those who observe it: $41. Cost of a pair of jeans at The Gap: $39. Hourly wage for Continental Airlines mechanics: $33. Hourly wage for a UAW worker in an automobile plant: $26.
Finally, the top 1% of U. S. taxpayers pay 33.8% of the taxes collected. The bottom half pay 3.9%.
-- Ronald Khol, Editor
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