On Jan 17, 2004, at 7:38 PM, steve crandall wrote:
>... More recently, Steve Jobs, who founded Apple Computer, has
>established himself firmly in the industry with Pixar Animation Studios.
>Its most recent release, ''Finding Nemo,'' took in $339 million at the
>box office in 2003, making it the highest-grossing movie of the year,
>according to Variety.
> ____
>
> the biggest grossing movie is probably less than 1/6 the size of the
> ferret market
 
[Moderator's note: Steve's quote above wasn't on the FML, but it's here
to put things in context, no doubt.  BIG]
 
Steve has an excellent point.
 
I've written to the show asking which Wall Street Journal reporter that
was.
 
Hmmm,*IF* in splitting up the amount of the ferret economy (> 2 Billion
dollars per year in the U.S. according to that specialist) going by
human population, then if some of it is an underground economy in
California due to ferrets being illegal plus the sales tax lost to out
of state purchases it calculates that there could be as high as tens of
millions of dollars in taxes being lost to the state of California in
lost taxes.  It would make a lot of sense to run the numbers and get an
actual conservative estimate.  Meanwhile, if California had a permit like
in NJ where we pay a very modest sum each year per ferret household there
is also a potential revenue stream from permits for legalized ferrets.
They could go from being an economic drain (all those horrid anti-ferret
things from CA F&G which have been sent to other states) to being a
profit center.  Any economics and accounting students, profs, or
professionals here at the FML who could work with the California ferret
people?
[Posted in FML issue 4396]