Special occasions

Cost of the London 2012 Olympics: £2.4 billion; no, I’m sorry, £5 billion
[3x2cr4]; or perhaps £9 billion [2dd4mz]. (£150 per person in the UK.)

Business as usual

£2.5 billion/y: Tesco’s profits (announced 2007). (£42 per year per person
in the UK.)
£10.2 billion/y: spent by British people on food that they buy but do not
eat. (£170 per year per person in the UK.)
£11 billion/y: BP’s profits (2006).
£13 billion/y: Royal Dutch Shell’s profits (2006).
$40 billion/y. Exxon’s profits (2006).
$33 billion/y. World expenditure on perfumes and make-up.
$700 billion per year: USA’s expenditure on foreign oil (2008). ($2300 per
year per person in the USA.)

Government business as usual

£1.5 billion: the cost of refurbishment of Ministry of Defence offices. (Private
Eye No. 1176, 19th January 2007, page 5.) (£25 per person in the UK.)
£15 billion: the cost of introducing UK identity card scheme [7vlxp]. (£250
per person in the UK.)

Planning for the future

£3.2 billion: the cost of the Langeled pipeline, which ships gas from Norwegian
producers to Britain. The pipeline’s capacity is 20 billion m3 per
year, corresponding to a power of 25 GW. [6x4nvu] [39g2wz] [3ac8sj]. (£53
per person in the UK.)

Tobacco taxes and related games

£8 billion/y: annual revenue from tobacco taxes in the UK [y7kg26]. (£130
per year per person in the UK.) The European Union spends almost e1
billion a year subsidising tobacco farming. www.ash.org.uk
$46 billion/y: Annual cost of the USA’s “War on drugs.” [r9fcf] ($150 per
year per person in the USA.)

Space

$1.7 billion: the cost of one space shuttle. ($6 per person in the USA.)