The Lies of the Six-Billion Dollar Man
Marky Mark has announced he will star in a re-make of the “Six Million Dollar Man.” Of course, these days, six million dollars doesn’t seem all that much, so it now has a slightly higher price tag, six billion dollars. That’s a big number (although it is still less than Apple’s quarterly profits; Tim Cook might have been a better candidate than Marky Mark.) However, is it an accurate number? A bit of poking around gives us several possible values:
Version / Date | CPI | Sept 2014 Equivalent Value |
Book (April 1972) | 41.7 | $62,815,827.34 |
TV Movie 1 (March 1973) | 43.6 | $60,078,440.37 |
TV Movie 2 (October 1973) | 45.9 | $57,067,973.86 |
TV Movie 1 (November 1973) | 46.2 | $56,697,402.60 |
TV Series Start (January 1974) | 46.9 | $55,851,172.71 |
TV Series Start (March 1978) | 63.7 | $41,121,193.09 |
So, six billion is not anywhere accurate. At the high end, it’s closer to the sixty million dollar man, and at the low end, it’s just a bit over the forty-one million dollar man. Let’s assume that at about 2/3rds of the way through the TV series, it officially became mis-named. Let’s also assume that about 40% of the final bill is parts (leaving 60% in labor expenses); this is important because there is the 2.3% medical device tax that is part of RomneyCare. In which case, the appropriate name for the Marky Mark vehicle should be something along the lines of the “$47,089,903.58 Dollar Man,” at least for September 2014.