Hi All,



As you know in Portal, once you’ve earned the complete Portal Device, GlaDOS mentions that it is now worth more then the combined incomes and organs of everyone in your home town. As a cost estimator this got me wondering what kind of number we’re talking about. So I put together an estimate using my home town which is Valdosta, Georgia. Obviously the income portion is the easiest since those numbers area available on the US Census website. Valuing organs on the other hand is much harder. Now I’m not aware of exactly when Portal takes place but I assume in my estimate that it is far enough in the future that:



1. US law has changed to allow the sale of organs for profit, either by the living or the estates of the deceased.

2. Stem cell research laws have changed and expanded the market for women to sell their eggs, making the total value of a women’s organs MUCH greater then a man’s.

3. The legalization has reduced prices of organs from what people are paying on the black market today.

So here are the numbers I came up with:

Valdosta Ga Census Data (2000)
Labor Force is 21,393 people
With a Per Capita Income of $16,472
For a Total Income Value of $352,385,496

Total Population Ages 18 and up 32,317
less Ages 65 and up (4,582)
total Eligible Population 27,735


46.3% are male, which is 12,841, each valued at $50,000 for a total of $642,065,250

53.7% are Female, which is 14,894, each valued at $150,000 for a total of $2,234,054,250

For an organ total of $2,876,119,500

So the Grand Total of all the income and organs on everyone in my hometown = $3,228,504,996 and the Hand Held Portal Device is worth even more! Wow.

I realize the organ portion of this estimate has the highest margin of error, I speculated those amounts by thinking back to the book "Next" by Michael Crichton, which is a great book, by the way!

Now I'm going to have cake.

Cheers!