What Thing$ Co$t
Last update: January 15, 2003
What Thing$ Co$t |
Last update: January 15, 2003 |
| How do you know the real value of anything? How do you compare, for example, a beautiful sunset to a well-tuned Porsche? How do you rate the smile of a young child, in comparison to a bleacher seat at the Skydome? How much would you be willing to sacrafice for true love, or a decent cup of coffee? Well, our society has made it very simple: put a dollar value on both. Put a dollar value on everything. |
|
All prices are in Canadian or U.S. dollars...
THE COST |
WHAT |
Last Update |
| $0.00 | Cost of Linux, a variation of the Unix operating system that is more reliable than Windows NT. | 1998-09-01 |
| $0.00 | Baby license. | 1998-09-01 |
| $0.00 | Property taxes on 12 of the 17 U.S. Major League Baseball stadiums. | 1998-09-01 |
| $0.01 | For your thought: "I don't like thinking about things too deeply, but I have no choice. It's like I have to be tortured all my life." | 1998-09-01 |
| $0.28 | Taxes on one litre of gas (total cost of one litre: .52) | 1998-09-01 |
| $2.00 | Value of Club Z points earned at Zellers for $100 purchases.** | 1998-09-01 |
| $4.00 | Value of coupons earned at Canadian Tire for $100 purchases. | 1998-09-01 |
| $3.00 | See The Byrds and Fleetwood Mac and others, Filmore East, in 1970. | 2006-03-07 |
| $6.00 | A new CMOS digital camera image sensor, expected to replace the CCD in a few years. | 1998-09-01 |
| $6.66 | Wendy's Spicey Chicken Combo including a "Frosty", which is like a thick milkshake. | 1998-09-01 |
| $8.00 | What 30% of the U.S. population makes, hourly. Actually, it's slightly less. | 1998-12-15 |
| $8.50 | Watch the movie, "Waterworld". | 1998-09-01 |
| $8.50 | Watch the movie, "Sweet Hereafter". | 1998-09-01 |
| $15.00 | Dog license. | 1998-09-01 |
| $18.00 | Keep a 100 watt lightbulb burning 8 hours a day for one year. | 1998-09-21 |
| $24.00 | The cost of one Tylenol tablet given to Laurence Paskowitz in NY hospital. | 1998-09-01 |
| $20.00 | See Bob Dylan live, in 1987. | 2006-03-07 |
| $25.00 | Beethoven's 5th Sympthony by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, | 1998-09-01 |
| $25.00 | A good seat in the Skydome to watch the Blue Jays | 1998-09-01 |
| $25.00 | An excellent seat at Kitchener's "Centre in the Square" to see Spirit of the West. | 1998-09-01 |
| $66.00 | Car license. | 1998-09-01 |
| $186.00 | Microsoft Windows 95, Canadian dollars, with free coupon for Win98. | 1998-09-01 |
| $180.00 | Value of video tapes Leandro Andrade stole that cost him 50 years in prison. | 2003-03-01 |
| $305.00 | Microsoft Windows XP, Canadian dollars. Thank God for competition. | 2003-01-01 |
| $350.00 | One "free" hard cover book at "Readers Ink", a locally-owned book store. | 1998-09-01 |
| $450.00 | Step beyond the limits of your identity. (Promise of Landmark Forum brochure). | 1998-09-01 |
| $475.00 | Average annual income for several African nations in which AIDS is now an epidemic. | 1998-09-01 |
| $1,800.00 | One "free" hard cover book at Coles (amount you have to spend to get it). | 1998-09-01 |
| $3,000.00 | Cost of a "basic" funeral service at home or funeral home, Ontario, Canada | 1998-10-25 |
| $3,500.00 | Cost of one year of liberal arts education at Trinity Christian College, 1975, including room/board. | 1998-09-01 |
| $2,000.00 | Per year, cost of a single NBA cheerleader (they get $40-75 a game). | 1998-12-10 |
| $4,500.00 | Welfare, one year, single person, in Ontario, including housing allowance of $180/mo. | 1998-09-01 |
| $7,020.00 | Benefits (annual) from government of Ontario to disabled AIDS victim. That's what you live on. Yup. That's it. More than it costs to host an IOC committee member for 5 days. | 1998-11-24 |
| $9,000.00 | Average cost of traditional funeral in Ontario, Canada. | 1998-10-25 |
| $19,725.00 | Average net profit for a musical artist who sells 500,000 copies of a CD, according to record industry analysts. The gross is about $8,000,000.00. | 1998-12-15 |
| $20,000 | Estimated cost of the war on Iraq, per household in the U.S. | 2006-03-07 |
| $20,000.00 | Cost of liberal arts education at Calvin College, 1998, including room/board. | 1998-09-01 |
| $6,250.00 | full page ad in "split run Canadian edition" of Sports Illustrated | 1999-01-27 |
| $25,400.00 | full page ad in Macleans | 1999-01-27 |
| $27,000.00 | A Toyota Sienna minivan. | 1998-09-01 |
| $30,000.00 | Lock somebody up in a New York prison for a year. | 2003-03-01 |
| $35,000.00 | Per year, estimated cost of AIDS treatments. | 1998-09-01 |
| $37,000.00 | Cost of one year at Calvin College, in 2006. | 2006-03-07 |
| $35,000.00 | Cost of a good "Anglo-Saxon" nanny for one year, in trendy Greenwich, Connecticut where investment bankers live. | 1998-09-01 |
| $35,000.00 | Estimated value of a GM mini-van awarded to a charity on behalf of the player of the game during an NFL broadcast. | 1998-09-01 |
| $50,000.00 | Have your body cryogenically frozen, for possible future revival. | 1998-10-26 |
| $50,000.00 | Salary of a decent minor league ball player. Can be as low as $25,000.00. | 1998-09-01 |
| $54,000.00 | Ugliest car in America: the Hummer. | 1998-10-19 |
| $55,000.00 | A first class constable in Ontario. No college degree required. | 1998-09-01 |
| $100,000.00 | A prescription drug (one year supply), Flolan, to prepare patients for heart-lung transplants. | 1998-10-06 |
| $200,000.00 | President of the United States and so-called "leader of the free world". | 1998-09-01 |
| $200,000.00 | Rights to perform "The Sound of Music", in Kitchener's Centre in the Square, over three nights. | 1998-11-08 |
| $350,000.00 | Cost of experimental stem-cell treatment for a rare form of leukemia. | 1998-10-06 |
| $350,000.00 | Cost of advertising the "gift" of a $35,000 mini-van to a football players favourite charity. Question: why not donate the ad? As if we don't know. | 1998-09-01 |
| $400,000.00 | A police helicopter, in Ontario, for one year. | 1998-09-23 |
| $607,000.00 | The total salary of all St. Louis Cardinals players in 1968. | 1998-09-01 |
| $675,000.00 | A press conference, in Labrador, held by Quebec government. | 1998-09-01 |
| $800,000.00 | Have the Olympics in your town! (Amount paid in bribes by Salt Lake City, Utah). | 1999-01-25 |
| $1,100,000.00 | Andrei Kovalenko, one year, forward for Edmonton Oilers (6 goals) | 1998-09-01 |
| $1,600,000.00 | A 30-second advertisement during the 1999 Superbowl | 1999-01-27 |
| $2,000,000.00 | Life of Salmon Rushdie, according to Islamic leaders in Iran. | 1998-09-23 |
| $2,300,000.00 | One year of Wendel Clark (12 goals, 7 assists!!!!!) | 1998-09-01 |
| $2,800,000.00 | The New York Yankees Baseball Club... in 1945. | 1998-09-01 |
| $3,200,000.00 | Make the movie "Sweet Hereafter". | 1998-09-01 |
| $4,000,000.00 | Ruin the childhoods of three of the Dionne Quintuplets (the amount paid by the province of Ontario to settle up.) | 1998-09-01 |
| $5,000,000.00 | Estimated total royalties earned by the song "Louie, Louie" by the Kingsman. | 1998-12-29 |
| $12,000,000.00 | Property taxes on the SkyDome in Toronto, home of the Blue Jays. | 1998-09-01 |
| $8,000,000.00 | Run a provincial election campaign, in Ontario (party's costs). | 1998-09-01 |
| $9,900,000.00 | Net worth of Jerry Garcia, leader of the Grateful Dead, upon his death in 1997 | 1998-10-25 |
| $10,000,000.00 | Exclusive rights to sell product at McMaster University, by Coke. | 1998-09-01 |
| $11,200,000.00 | The New York Yankees Baseball Club... in 1964. | 1998-09-01 |
| $15,000,000.00 | Be the agent of someone who boxes for an hour. Don King. | 1998-10-26 |
| $17,000,000.00 | Play basketball and physically attack your coach. Latrell Sprewell's salary. | 1998-09-01 |
| $30,000,000.00 | One hour or so of boxing. Convicted felon Mike Tyson. "Virtue is it's own reward". | 1998-10-26 |
| $40,000,000.00 | A little art to bring colour to your life: Piet Mondrian's "Victory Boogie Woogie", by Dutch Government. | 1998-10-12 |
| $55,000,000.00 | So far: cost of uncovering the fact that consensual sex took place in the White House. | 1998-09-01 |
| $71,000,000.00 | Gross receipts for recordings issued by Chuck D. and Public Enemy ("Fight the Power") | 1998-12-16 |
| $72,000,000.00 | Cost of promoting, producting, and distributing Public Enemy recordings, according to Def Jam (Polygram), their record company. | 1998-12-16 |
| $73,000,000.00 | The total salary of the Baltimore Orioles Baseball Club in 1998. | 1998-09-01 |
| $80,000,000.00 | Current budget for gross national idiocy: annual take of the NRA. | 1998-09-01 |
| $81,000,000.00 | Mike Piazza, to play baseball for seven years. | 1998-09-01 |
| $91,000,000.00 | Mike Piazza, to play baseball for seven years (renegotiated, 1998-10) | 1998-10-27 |
| $100,000,000.00 | Your identity. Mike Costanza, suing Jerry Seinfield, claiming that Seinfeld "stole" his identity for the hit tv show's character, George Costanza. Like the TV character, Mike is "short, heavy set, and bald." | 1998-10-29 |
| $120,000,000.00 | Make the movie "Waterworld" | 1998-09-01 |
| $180,000,000.00 | Reform the welfare system:, Anderson Consulting of Illinois, to be paid by Ontario Government, to drive people on welfare into the streets. | 1998-11-04 |
| $188,000,000.00 | One (1) F-22 fighter plane. These planes do crash occasionally. "Oops." | 1998-11-22 |
| $250,000,000.00 | Estimated value of New York Yankees in 1998. | 1998-09-01 |
| $271,000,000.00 | Guarantee 1,000 jobs by luring a life insurance company (Crown Life) to relocate it's head office to your city. The company was bought out and closed down a few years later. | 1998-09-01 |
| $275,000,000.00 | Keep a ball team in your city: San Diego's proposed civic commitment to new stadium. | 1998-10-09 |
| $321,000,000.00 | Taxpayer subsidy of the Skydome in Toronto-- our share of Roger Clemen's salary. | 1998-11-23 |
| $365,000,000.00 | Per year, income from state sponsored gambling, Oregon, taxes on the poor and stupid. | 1998-10-19 |
| $1,000,000,000.00 | Yes, that's one billion dollars, for a soccer (football) team, Manchester United, paid by Rupert Murdoch, 1998. | 1998-09-01 |
| $1,260,000,000.00 | A human life: lawsuit over the Swissair Crash filed by ambulance-chaser Aaron Broder, king of such suits. | 1998-10-09 |
| $2,000,000,000.00 | Unconfirmed real cost of a stealth fighter | 2003-01-01 |
| $4,500,000,000.00 | Build one (1) aircraft carrier, the Harry S. Truman (1999) | 1999-02-01 |
| $5,000,000,000.00 | Per year, U.S., the cost of keeping the existing stockpile of nuclear weapons "safe and reliable", as if they could be both things at once. | 1998-09-01 |
| $7,500,000,000.00 | Fight a totally unsuccessful battle against marijuana use - U.S. Federal and State Governments, 1998. | 1998-10-19 |
| $11,000,000,000.00 | Service charges at all Canadian banks, one year. | 1998-09-01 |
| $13,400,000,000.00 | Spent on candy every year in the United States | 1999-01-25 |
| $14,500,000,000.00 | Annual take by Microsoft. | 1998-09-15 |
| $25,000,000,000.00 | I am not kidding: the fee lawyers for the state of Texas demanded for negotiating a $17 billion settlement with the tobacco industry. Yes, their fee appears to exceed the award. | 1998-12-05 |
| $35,000,000,000.00 | Buy Turkey-- price for using it a base for U.S. troops to attack Iraq. | 2003-03-01 |
| $61,700,000,000.00 | Net worth of Bill Gates, 1998 | 1998-09-21 |
| $3,000,000,000.00 | Save Argentina-- amount of loan from IMF after 60% of nation fell into poverty in 2002. | 2003-03-01 |
| $100,000,000,000.00 | Destroy a third-rate third-world power-- Iraq-- estimated. | 2003-03-01 |
| $88,500,000,000.00 | Think Microsoft is rich? Annual take by General Electric Corporation. | 1998-09-15 |
| $109,000,000,000.00 | Total charitable giving by individuals in the U.S. (per annum) | 1998-11-30 |
| $189,600,000,000.00 | Net worth of John D. Rockefeller, in 1998 dollars. And you thought Bill Gates was rich! | 1998-09-21 |
| $275,000,000,000.00 | U.S. Defense Budget. Every 23 airplanes and 1.6 ships has it's own General or Admiral. | 1998-11-22 |
| $300,000,000,000.00 | Estimated cost of conquering a third-rate power: 1991 war on Iraq | 2003-02-10 |
| $450,000,000,000.00 | Estimated cost of conquering a third-rate power: 2003 war on Iraq. | 2003-02-02 |
| $858,000,000,000.00 | Fix a computer bug (the Y2K bug) according to Cap Gemini SA | 1998-11-18 |
| $1,700,000,000,000.00 | Annual Budget for the Federal Government, United States of America. Yes, trillions. | 1998-10-17 |