Why math should be required in journalism school...

From the Guardian, we have a little ditty on a proposal to raise $10b per year from a levy to be imposed on international airfare. This money is going to help developing nations cope with the costs of curbing greenhouse gas emissions. Sounds all well and good, so far. Except for this little quote:

The aviation levy, which is expected to increase the price of long-haul fares by less than 1%, would raise $10bn (£6.25bn) a year

Alright, then. Let's do a little math, shall we? If we are going to raise flights by less than one percent, it would seem innocent enough to round that figure up to one percent for a little calculation:

Annual revenue of international airline industry = Sum(all international airfare)

$10b = 1% * Sum(all international airfare)

Annual revenue of international airline industry = $10b/1% = $1,000b = $1t

I'm not sure about you, but somehow, I just can't believe that international flights produce ONE TRILLION USD a year in revenue. A quick google search yields this little tidbit of information: The entire US domestic airline industry takes in an annual haul estimated at $120b. This includes the amount of money that US domestic airlines make from flying passengers overseas. I.e., it is necessarily a part of the $1,000b number that we figured earlier.

This means that, either the entire international air travel market (including US revenues) are eight times the size of the entire US airlines' haul, or, that somebody's bulls---ing about the actual cost to passengers. Let's do some math that at least uses the right number of zeros, shall we?

If we assume that the international air travel revenues are roughly equivalent to the US revenues (in other words, a figure with 11 zeros rather than 12), we recognize that in order to raise $10b annually from such a levy, we are talking about a price increase of roughly 10%, not "less than 1%".

In other news, the price of tea shipped from China just went up.