However, I will still make it...

And my point is, even if the 20 bn USD figure were true, it is not really specially big. When they throw the figure out, it obviously seems like really big and that this is a huge problem and all. However, 20 billion dollars is not really a great figure in the world economy. It certainly sounds like a huge figure because most people have never seen (or rather, "seen", as 20 bn is still a bunch of currency) 20 billion in their lives and never will. Also, people are not usually familiar with the amounts of money that actually get moving in the world economy - data which are relegated to the "business" news, which nobody watches / reads / listens to anyway... (and they should, but that's another matter)...

For some reason, I am betting both you and Eeyore (strangely enough) will get a kick out of this.

[All figures come from Wikipedia; all I have double-checked with other sources and all seem to be generally in agreement; also see the considerations about the accuracy that the Wikipedia articles themselves mention]

Now, how does 20 billion US dollars rank against:

The world's richest people???

[Wikipedia: "List of billionaires"]

Eight people in the world are as rich as or richer than the whole CP industry:

1 Bill Gates (USA) - 50 bn
2 Warren Buffett (USA) - 42 bn
3 Carlos Slim Helú (Mexico) - 30 bn
4 Ingvar Kamprad (Sweden) - 28 bn
5 Lakshmi Mittal (India) - 23.5 bn
6 Paul Allen (USA) - 22 bn
7 Bernard Arnault (France) - 21.5 bn
8 HRH Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal bin Abdul Aziz Al-Saud (Saudi Arabia) - 20 bn

No longer richer than the CP industry are, notably:
9 Kenneth Thomson (Canada) - 19.6 bn
11 Roman Abramovich (Russia) - 18.2 bn
39 Silvio Berlusconi (Italy) - 11 bn

So, even by the rigged NCMEC figure, the CP industry makes less than what some billionaires have. However, comparing it to individuals is misleading, as individual wealth depends on factors different from, say, country wealth... so...

The world's richest countries???

[Wikipedia: "List of countries by GDP (nominal)"]

1 USA - 12,485.725 bn
2 Japan - 4,571.314 bn
3 Germany - 2,797.343 bn
4 Mainland China (PRC) - 2,224.811 bn
5 UK - 2,201.473 bn
6 France - 2,105.864 bn
7 Italy - 1,766.160 bn
8 Canada - 1,130.208 bn
9 Spain - 1,126.565 bn
10 South Korea - 793.070 bn
11 Brazil - 792.683 bn
12 India - 775.410 bn
13 Mexico - 768.437 bn
14 Russia - 766.180 bn
15 Australia - 707.992 bn
16 Netherlands - 625.271 bn
17 Belgium - 372.091 bn
18 Switzerland - 367.513 bn
19 Turkey - 362.461 bn
20 Sweden - 358.819 bn
21 Taiwan (ROC) - 346.141 bn
22 Saudi Arabia - 307.770 bn
23 Austria - 307.036 bn
24 Poland - 300.533 bn
25 Norway - 296.017 bn
26 Indonesia - 276.004 bn
27 Denmark - 259.746 bn
28 South Africa - 239.144 bn
29 Greece - 222.878 bn
30 Ireland - 199.722 bn
31 Iran - 196.409 bn
32 Finland - 193.491 bn
33 Portugal - 183.436 bn
34 Argentina - 181.662 bn
35 Hong Kong - 177.723 bn
36 Thailand - 168.774 bn
37 UAE - 133.768 bn
38 Venezuela - 132.848 bn
39 Malaysia - 130.796 bn
40 Czech Rep. - 123.603 bn
41 Israel - 123.526 bn
42 Colombia - 122.269 bn
43 Pakistan - 118.472 bn
44 Singapore - 117.882 bn
45 Chile - 113.956 bn
46 Hungary - 109.483 bn
47 New Zealand - 108.547 bn
48 Algeria - 102.026 bn
49 Nigeria - 99.147 bn
50 Romania - 98.566 bn
51 Philippines - 97.653 bn
52 Egypt - 93.045 bn
53 Ukraine - 81.664 bn
54 Peru - 78.576 bn
55 Kuwait - 74.598 bn
56 Bangladesh - 61.218 bn
57 Kazakhstan - 56.088 bn
58 Morocco - 51.986 bn
59 Vietnam - 50.900 bn
60 Slovakia - 46.763 bn
61 Libya - 38.735 bn
62 Qatar - 37.852 bn
63 Croatia - 37.553 bn
64 Luxembourg - 34.184 bn
65 Slovenia - 34.030 bn
66 Ecuador - 33.062 bn
67 Oman - 30.326 bn
68 Tunisia - 30.185 bn
69 Belarus - 29.566 bn
70 Dominican Rep. - 29.209 bn
71 Angola - 28.860 bn
72 Sudan - 27.699 bn
73 Guatemala - 27.366 bn
74 Bulgaria - 26.719 bn
75 Syria - 26.442 bn
76 Serbia and Montenegro - 26.215 bn
77 Lithuania - 25.726 bn
78 Sri Lanka - 23.514 bn
79 Lebanon - 22.052 bn

*** European Union - 13,446.050

It's refreshing to see that countries like... Sudan, Guatemala, Sri Lanka and Angola are making more money than the CP industry...

Notable countries making less than the CP industry are:

80 Costa Rica - 19.782 bn
82 Turkmenistan - 17.666 bn
94 Bahrain - 12.921 bn
96 Azerbaijan - 12.561 bn
113 Afghanistan - 7.139 bn

What is funny is that Turkmenistan, Bahrain and Azerbaijan are huge producers of oil and gas... it seems like they would do better closing their wells and setting up a few servers... as for Afghanistan, CP is a development plan that I expect will attract the attention of the USA and the EU when they next discuss the Afghan aid situation...

Notice also this utterly interesting thing...

CP industry as percentage of countries' GDP (largest GDP's only):

EU - 0.15%
US - 0.16%
Japan - 0.44%
Germany - 0.71%
Mainland China (PRC) - 0.90%
UK - 0.91%
France - 0.95 %
Italy - 1.13 %
Canada - 1.77%
Spain - 1.78 %
South Korea - 2.52%
Brazil - 2.52%
India - 2.58%
Mexico - 2.60 %
Russia - 2.61%
Australia - 2.82%
Netherlands - 3.20%

The EU, most of the EU countries, and, sure enough, the USA, are running on deficits which are several times as big as the whole CP industry...

Homework: check your country's budget, and some of the budgets of other countries too. Find out a few sectors which are allocated several times more money than the CP industry makes in a whole year...

(You just gotta love this...)

Of course, what Baldur said about country to country inequalities also led me to research what should be the definitive figure... Even if NCMEC's figure were true, this numbers prove beyond all doubt that CP would still not be the Huge World Problem that is being made by them and their friendly media... I proceed to compare the 20 billion dollar babes with...

The world's largest companies???

[Wikipedia: "List of companies by revenue" - While the figure for market capitalisation is, imo, the best number to use to assess a company's size, NCMEC itself provides the 20 bn USD figure for revenues, not capitalisation, so I used companies revenues myself to lead to a methodologically correct comparison]

1 Royal Dutch Shell (Netherlands-UK), oil, 379 bn
2 Exxon Mobil (USA), oil, 371 bn
3 BP (UK), oil, 299 bn
4 Wal-Mart (USA), retail, 288 bn
5 General Motors (USA), automobile, 195.6 bn
6 Daimler-Chrysler (Germany-USA), automobile, 192 bn
7 Chevron-Texaco (USA), oil, 184.9 bn
8 Total (France), oil, 178.3 bn
9 Ford (USA), automobile, 178.1 bn
10 Toyota (Japan), automobile, 176 bn
11 Volkswagen (Germany), automobile, 156 bn
12 Conoco-Phillips (USA), oil (or rather, oil derivatives), 150.7 bn
13 General Electric (USA), electronics et al (notably, NBC), 148.2 bn
14 Samsung (South Korea), electronics, 133 bn
15 AXA (France), insurance, 132.5 bn
16 Allianz (Germany), insurance, 129.5 bn
17 ING (Netherlands), insurance, 115 bn
18 Citigroup (USA), banking, 108 bn
19 AIG (USA), insurance, 98 bn
20 Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (Japan), telecoms, 92 bn
21 IBM (USA), IT, 91 bn
22 Siemens (Germany), electronics, 90.7 bn
23 Hewlett-Packard (USA), IT, 86.7 bn
24 Hitachi (Japan), electronics, 84.3 bn
25 Matsushita (Japan), electronics, 81.3 bn
26 Aviva (UK), insurance, 78 bn
27 Nestlé (Switzerland), food and drink, 76.7 bn
28 Sony (Japan), electronics et al (notably, CBS), 72.1 bn
29 Deutsche Telekom (Germany), telecoms, 70.2 bn
30 PSA (France), automobile, 70.1 bn
31 Home Depot (USA), retail, 69.4 bn
32 Verizon (USA), telecoms, 69.2 bn
33 USPS (USA), postal services, 69 bn
34 Tesco (UK), retail, 65.2 bn
35 Eni (Italy), oil, 64.7 bn
36 Berkshire Hathaway (USA), insurance, 64.3 bn
37 Altria (USA), tobacco, 64 bn
38 Fiat (Italy), automobile, 63.3 bn
39 E.ON (Germany), energy, 62.6 bn
40 Munich Re (Germany), insurance, 61.2 bn
41 Cargill (USA), agriculture, 59.9 bn
42 Assicurazioni Generali (Italy), insurance, 57.9 bn
43 Statoil (Norway), oil, 57 bn
44 Nissan (Japan), automobile, 56.9 bn
45 HSBC (UK), banking, 56.1 bn
46 Credit Suisse (Switzerland), banking, 55 bn
47 Federal National Mortgage Association (USA), financial services, 53.8 bn
48 RWE (Germany), energy, 53.7 bn
49 Toshiba (Japan), electronics, 52.8 bn
50 LG (South Korea), electronics, 52.4 bn
51 BMW (Germany), automobile, 52.1 bn
52 Deutsche Post (Germany), postal services, 51.7 bn
53 Renault (without Nissan) (France), automobile, 51.5 bn
54 China Petroleum and Chemical (PRC), oil and petrochemical, 51.3 bn
55 Boeing (USA), aeronautics and defence, 50.5 bn
56 RBS (UK), banking, 44.3 bn
57 Tokyo Electric Power (Japan), energy, 41 bn
58 Bayer (Germany), pharmaceutical, 40.2 bn
59 Koch (USA), commodities, 40 bn
60 Barclays (UK), banking, 40 bn
61 Fujitsu (Japan), electronics, 39.1 bn
62 Glaxo Smith Kline (UK), pharmaceutical, 39 bn
63 EADS (Netherlands), aeronautics and defence, 37.8 bn
64 Telefónica (Spain), telecoms, 37.5 bn
65 Microsoft (USA), software, 36.8 bn
66 Tyco (Bermuda-USA), electronics, 36.8 bn
67 Gazprom (Russia), oil, 36.4 bn
68 Deutsche Bahn (Germany), railways, 35.4 bn
69 Morgan Stanley (USA), financial services, 34.9 bn
70 Intel (USA), electronics, 34.2
71 Sanofi-Aventis (France), pharmaceutical, 34 bn
72 BASF (Germany), chemical, 33.9 bn
73 Veolia Environnement (France), environmental services, 33.4 bn
74 Petrobras (Brazil), 32.9 bn
75 Mitsubishi (Japan), automobile, 32.4 bn
76 MHFG (Japan), financial services, 32.1 bn
77 HVB (Germany), banking, 30 bn
78 BHP Billiton (Australia-UK), mining, 29.6 bn
79 Swiss Re (Switzerland), insurance, 29.3 bn
80 Merrill Lynch (USA), financial services, 27.7 bn
81 Roche (Switzerland), pharmaceutical, 27.6 bn
82 Celesio (Germany), pharmacies, 26.5 bn
83 Air France-KLM (France), airline, 26 bn
84 Norsk Hydro (Norway), energy, 25.8 bn
85 Alcan (Canada), alumninium, 25 bn
86 Anglo-American (UK), mining, 24.9 bn
87 Airbus (France), aircraft, 24.2 bn
88 Goldman Sachs (USA), financial services, 23.6 bn
89 Almanij (Belgium), 23 bn
90 Merck (USA), pharmaceutical, 22.9 bn
91 Raytheon (USA), defence, 21.9 bn
92 Bridgestone (Japan), tires, 21.5 bn
93 Lufthansa (Germany), airline, 21.5 bn
94 Astra-Zeneca (UK-Sweden), pharmaceutical, 21.4 bn
95 Halliburton (USA), oil industry services, 21 bn
96 MTFG (Japan), banking, 20.6 bn
97 EDS (USA), IT services, 20.5 bn
98 Pricewaterhouse Coopers (USA), consulting, 20.3 bn

Refreshing as it is to know that Halliburton still is making more than the CP industry, something of which I can be sure the Bush administration must be very proud, we also note some well known companies that make less than the world's CP makers...

99 Michelin (France), tires, 19.3 bn
101 Mars (USA), food and drink, 17 bn
102 Japan Post (Japan), postal services, 17.4 bn
107 Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu (USA), consulting, 16.4 bn
109 Bombardier (Canada), aeronautics and railways, 15.8 bn
112 Apple (USA), IT, 13.93 bn
116 Nike (USA), sports, 12.3 bn

However, the fact remains that, as much as Apple would make more if its computers had CP from the factory, or Nike would make more if instead of having children make footwear, they'd have them play with each other... Shell is still making almost 19 times what the CP industry makes, Wal-Mart 14 times as much, GM 10 times as much, and, as you can see, a whole 98 companies made more than the whole CP industry over the year 2005...


Given all the above data, and, again, even conceding the rigged figure of 20 bn USD per year, I ask: does the CP industry really make much money????

You can compare it to what the richest people in the world have, what the richest countries in the world produce, what the largest companies in the world are making - the fact is, even if it made 20 billion, that is totally negligible. As much as probably none of the NCMEC people have seen 20 billion in their useless lives, that still doesn't mean 20 billion really is all that much money... Oil, carmaker, pharmaceutical and electronics executives (as has been shown) would go totally bankrupt if they ever switched their company to the "highly lucrative CP market"... as would Dick Cheney and his Halliburton cronies...