Only 333Million Tax Payers on Earth in y3k?

[on:]

I did a little math when I watched 'Three Hundred Big Boys': After defeating the Spiderians they got one Trillion Dollars: 

And to the victor belong the spoils - one trillion dollars in silken treasure.

And Nixon says the following on TV:   

My fellow Earthicans. After meeting with top voodoo economists, I have decided to refund our silk surplus to you, the taxpayers.

My English probably isn't the best.. so I might have based my thouhgts on misunderstandings.. :/

If you divide the 1 Trillion by the 300 buckaroos you get: 333*10^7 people (3billion) who get refunded. And these are the taxpayers of Earth. I think it ain't much, looking at the momentary developement..

regards

Daniel

EDIT: uhm, I just reentered these numbers into my calculator and got another result...      But even though, it seems not to be much..; i'td be nice if one of the mods could change the title of that topic 

[Reply #1 on:]

hmmm the amount of human beingsd always did seem low to me on futurama. they have made like one overpopulation joke in the whole show and that was the overcrowded tube thingys in i think ragign bender. neway in the problem w/ popplers i believe lrrr demanded 50 billion humans for consumption. and there r apparently not that many human beings as kif said. theres liek waht 6.1 billion right now? thats some slow reproduction

[Reply #2 on:]

Bear in mind Earth have been devastated by two alien invasions, a new dark age and countless Omicronians incursions. Add to that, the trend that the fertility rate drops significantly the more developed a society becomes. Mainly because people are made aware of and have contraception available. Though the effects of careers and industrialization are significant too. Many European states hover around 0-1% population growth p.a. Current calculations suggest the population of Earth will peak at 9 billion in 2050, afterwards we'll see an actual drop.

About 3.3 billion taxpayers does seem pretty fair to me. That'll put the combined population of Earth in the 4-4.5 billion range.

[Reply #3 on:]

 

Originally posted by Teral:
...countless Omicronians incursions.

I counted two.

Anyway, keep in mind that in Futurama, space travel is commonplace, and many people live on planets other than earth.  Combine that with what Teral said about a lower birth rate, and it's not unreasonable.  There might be more people in the universe by the 31st century, but not all of them live on earth, so there might indeed be less people on earth.

[Reply #4 on:]

 

Originally posted by Teral:
Bear in mind Earth have been devastated by two alien invasions, a new dark age and countless Omicronians incursions. Add to that, the trend that the fertility rate drops significantly the more developed a society becomes. Mainly because people are made aware of and have contraception available. Though the effects of careers and industrialization are significant too. Many European states hover around 0-1% population growth p.a.

In Germany you can't even use the word "growth" anymore. Not to mention Belorussia with an average -0,1 % "growth".
 

About 3.3 billion taxpayers does seem pretty fair to me. That'll put the combined population of Earth in the 4-4.5 billion range.

4.5 billion does look okay. The Alien invasion, the new Dark Ages, the colonisation of other planets (for example Mars), the nuclear winter Leela did mention in "Xmas Story", etc ... Enough reasons why there are not like 20 billion people on Earth in 1000 years.

Plus we should not forget that the "United States of Earth" (not the DOOP, just Earth's gouvernment) are basing on today's USA in several ways. Probably as well the traditional "high" motivation of Americans in paying taxes.   

No wonder they have introduced the pain-monster for those who do not pay their taxes    (as seen in "A Taste of Freedom" )

Edit: We all know Dr Zoidberg is very poor. He doesn't even have enough money for food often. How can he pay his taxes? According to "300 Big Boys" he seems to be a (regular) tax payer. Also the "pain monster" never visted him for not paying taxes ... 

[Reply #5 on:]

 

Originally posted by TheLesbianLeela:Edit: We all know Dr Zoidberg is very poor. He doesn't even have enough money for food often. How can he pay his taxes? According to "300 Big Boys" he seems to be a (regular) tax payer. Also the "pain monster" never visted him for not paying taxes ...   

He is not so poor. Before that guy traded his sandwich for Zoidys PE shares, Zoidy was majority share holder of PE. Tragically he does not know of his 'fortune'. Actually he's funny and loveable the way he is. 

[Reply #6 on:]

The combination of the reduced birth rate in the now  because of entirely 'developed world' Earth and colonial endeavors on Mars, Mercury, etc. seems to be a perfectly good and reasonable exblation for the 4.5 billion population. 

[Reply #7 on:]

Hermes gave Zoidberg the shares when they were worthless, and Zoidy traded them for a sandwich before the stock went up (and then down again).  So he was never rich.

Zoidberg's income tax probably comes out of his paycheck.  And since he doesn't own anything, he wouldn't need to pay property taxes.  So I don't think it's unreasonable that he would be a regular taxpayer.

[Reply #8 on:]

 

Originally posted by VoVat:
Hermes gave Zoidberg the shares when they were worthless...

When did that happen?

I just rewatched Futurestock and that didn't happen in that episode.

[Reply #9 on:]

It was there in the last third of the episode:

 

At the stock exchange, after the votes where casted and That guy held 51% of PlanEx.
He bought them from Zoidberg with a Sandwich earlier in that episode:
Hermes: The shares were worthless and he kept asking for toilet paper!

[Reply #10 on:]

duhh, I'll have to concentrate next time I watch Futurstock...   

EDIT: guess what I just did (Bender would have said 'NO!' now  ): I rerewatched Futurestock..

You never see (in this episode) how Hermes gives Zoidy the shares.

And VoVat, we don't know if the shares are worthless when Zoidberg gets them (possibly by Hermes).

[Reply #11 on:]

Except Hermes tells us, in so many words.

"The shares where worthless!"

And Hermes is a bureaucratic kinda guy, he would never joke about such serious matters. Plus he hates Zoidberg, if the shares were worth anything he would never give them to Zoidberg.

[Reply #12 on:]

Zoidberg did once pay property tax, he did own the one house in "The Deep South", and at the end lived inside Benders huge fish

[Reply #13 on:]

Right, I can accept a human population of 4.5 billion. What about the robots? Bender got a Tricky Dick fun-bill as well. If the robots could vote Nixon into power in AHITP, there has to be at least 2.25 billion robots on Earth, and that's only if the Tastycrats and Fingerlickians were tied in the polls.

The only explanation that I can come up with is that he's fiddled the system somehow. Anybody got a simpler, non-wizardly explanation?

[Reply #14 on:]

 

Originally posted by Hedonism Bot:
Right, I can accept a human population of 4.5 billion. What about the robots? Bender got a Tricky Dick fun-bill as well. If the robots could vote Nixon into power in AHITP, there has to be at least 2.25 billion robots on Earth, and that's only if the Tastycrats and Fingerlickians were tied in the polls.

That's assuming that all 4.5 billion tax-payers voted. In fact, according to Linda the voter turnout was at it's highest in centuries - 6%. Also, the robots are included in the tax-payer count so even following your logic it would really be 3 billion humans and 1.5 billion robots. And the number of tax-payers isn't neccesarily the same as the number of people eligable to vote.

[Reply #15 on:]

Wernstum solves yet another puzzle 

[Reply #16 on:]

Basic biology(according to my teacher) The earth is over populated... The minimum amount of people for maximum use of resources/niches ect, should be around 900 thousand people...  So they are still "overpopulated"

[Reply #17 on:]

Thanks, Wernstrum; I was forgetting the 6% voting turnout.

[Reply #18 on:]

Isn't it also possible that The Earthican government has some inept civil servants who can't do basic math?

[Reply #19 on:]

Inept government officials? Surely not. 

[Reply #20 on:]

Earthican? That's terran.

And I think the thread title is inaccurate. A billion is a thousand-million right? That should read, " Only 3,333 million tax payers on earth in Y3K".

[Reply #21 on:]

 

Originally posted by ShortRoundMcfly:
Earthican? That's terran.

Not around here.

 

And I think the thread title is inaccurate. A billion is a thousand-million right? That should read, " Only 3,333 million tax payers on earth in Y3K".

Yeah, that was pointed out in the first post of the thread.

[Reply #22 on:]

I think that most people just choose to spend a weekend with the paine monster.

[Reply #23 on:]

Why earthican? That just sounds backwards to me.

[Reply #24 on:]

It's a play on American, just like the Earthican flag.

Plus Earthican is as good a translation of the Latin word Terran as you can get.