It is going to take me a while to decipher this, but I thought I would share in case anyone else wants to waste some time. How long did it take Randall to make and design this?
I just spent 10 minutes looking at it and one thing I noticed: it’s riddled with errors. Not factual errors (that I noticed), but formatting errors. Ralph Lauren’s graphic, the label on the Civil War, the wording on 1965 Typical CEO hourly wage, the unlabeled mystery graph under “economic vortex” just to name a few.
I’m surprised. Randall usually is a lot more careful than this.
I think the scale overwhelmed him and he needed to post something. There will probably be some corrections/updates later.
It would seem to have quite a few small things that need clarification. It is really nice though. Informative is an understatement.
I didn’t look closely, but I got the impression from the alt text that he was reposting something and that wasn’t a chart of his own work.
I took the tittle text “There, I showed you it” as a play on “Show me the money” (given the title of the comic)
Only semi-related, but I come across these microscopic texts every now and then.
How do you view these in a readable manner?
Thanks in advance
If you click on the graphic on the xkcd page, it opens a pdf which can be zoomed way in so you can read the small text.
A few hours later, it looks like a lot of the issues have been fixed.
It’s not a PDF, and it’s much slower for it.
According to this site it is something he put together rather than reposted from elsewhere.
One glitch I noticed in the “Dinner for Four” section under “Dollars”: 30 minutes of travel time is marked as 13 squares for McDonald’s, 12 squares for Outback, 10 squares for Chili’s, and 9 squares for Arby’s (they should all be 8 squares, or maybe 9 depending on rounding issues, given the valuation he’s putting on time).
A cat does not cost $670/year.
I dunno, a healthy cat that eats nothing but kibbles and table scraps might cost less than that.
That’s my point. A year’s supply of cat kibble is like $200.
The SPCA puts it at $900.
I could see that kenneling and nail clipping are things that many ordinary pet owners might reasonably avoid paying for, which would shave three hundred off that - but otherwise it seems like it’s in the ballpark.
$210 for cat vacationing fees? Cats get food, vet, kitty litter and that’s it. And even then, it gets discount cat food. If I need to be away from home for an extended period of time, a bud of mine gets to watch the cat, and she gets maybe a beer for it.
Oh, mine might. Food is about $1/can, and he gets one can per day, so that’s $365. Then litter is about $12/thingy, and we probably go through 10-15 of those per year. There’s another $120 - $180. Just the one vet visit for all his shots would easily put it over the top. Yes, he’s getting IAMS food, and we don’t use the cheapest litter around (because it stinks), but neither of them is top-of-the-line stuff. We could be spending a hell of a lot more - and some folks do. Granted, a cat doesn’t have to cost $670 per year, but I think that’s probably not a wildly inaccurate estimate.
A cat most definitely could cost that much if it’s diabetic. (Ask me how I know!)
A cat between the ages of one and eight can cost substantially less, because young and healthy cats have negligible vet bills. However, a single expensive vet visit when the cat is twelve can drive up the cost substantially, and all those kitten check-ups for shots cost a lot too. Munroe isn’t trying to provide a minimum, he’s trying to provide an average, and so naturally some people will be below that number.