Money Counter

April 11, 2005 3:28 PM

Money Counter,based on this Parade article, makes comparisons (science vs. the arts, business vs. safety, nuclear energy vs. cleanup, and the Whitewater/Lewinsky vs. 9/11 investigations) based on how much tax money is budgeted to various agencies. [via kottke]
posted by kirkaracha (9 comments total)

Warning: for some reason, the main link works like crap on Firefox. Oh, and the behavior of the drop-down box is really frustrating, even in IE.

Interesting stats I guess. I can see that science is perceived as a better investment than art...
posted by knave at 3:43 PM on April 11, 2005

Same drop-down problem here. Solution: Dont release button when you click on the box, until you get to your choice.

That first link is not very useful. In the Parade article, a glaring omission is the DEA and ONDCP and related ventures. Oh well..
posted by Gyan at 3:47 PM on April 11, 2005

Interesting, but the science/art one is a bit misleading; science being a bit more capitol intensive than your average art exhibition...
posted by docgonzo at 3:48 PM on April 11, 2005

Link unusable in Firefox.
posted by DaShiv at 3:48 PM on April 11, 2005

Annoying, but not unusable.

There is, however, a strong danger of false dichotomies. Why is the SBA lumped in with the SEC when compared to consumer safety? Why is maintenance of volatile nuclear weapons put against nuclear research?

And what on earth is demonstrated by the dramatic observation that the NEA is much smaller than the NSF? Is there a strong case for parity?
posted by allan at 3:57 PM on April 11, 2005

works for me....I think. You change the dropdown and the amounts change, right? Oh well now it's gone and fucked my browser up.
posted by puke & cry at 3:59 PM on April 11, 2005

What allan said.
posted by afroblanca at 4:46 PM on April 11, 2005

The only interesting one is the 9/11 vs Lewinsky/Whitewater comparison. The rest are bizaare. The graphs of the US Federal budget post on MeFi a while ago were far more interesting.

Really, the fact that almost 3 times as much money was spent investigating a legal land deal and a zipper problem as was spent on investigating if the most successful attack could have been detected is scandalous.
posted by sien at 5:33 PM on April 11, 2005

Citizen sien,

Please report to the

John Howard Center

for debriefing.

Thank you.
posted by MikeKD at 6:05 PM on April 11, 2005