How City Budgets Work
January 19th, 2022 Barry Posted in Economic cartoons | No Comments »
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TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON
(New drinking game! Every time I make a typo, take a drink. Don’t play this game if you have to drive later.)
This cartoon has four panels. Each panel shows a different scene, and has a different color palette.
PANEL 1
This panel, drawing with an orange-ish palette, shows a woman talking on the phone, looking a little panicked. Beside her, a wide-eyed child watches, looking very worried. Above them both is a large caption, in big green letters.
CAPTION: HOW CITY BUDGETS WORK
WOMAN: A six year waiting list? But we’re homeless now!
PANEL 2
This panel is colored in shades of purple.
A middle-aged woman wearing glasses and a striped dress is talking to a middle-aged man wearing a suit and tie. She looks wide-eyed and worried; he looks angry, glaring into space as he talks.
Behind them we can see a big window; various shapes (a banana, an apple, flowers, a star) have been cut out of paper and taped to the window. In front of them, we see mostly the heads and faces of a crowd of children, variously talking, smiling, making a peace sign, and dozing off (with a bit of drool).
WOMAN: But we can’t fit another 30 chairs into this classroom!
MAN: Chairs? City Hall says kids can stand.
PANEL 3
This panel is colored in very dreary shades of green.
We are looking through a doorway at a man with slightly shaggy hair, who sits unhappily at a cheap rectangular table in an otherwise empty room. Outside the room, leaning back as if he’s just calling something into the room while rushing past, a man wearing glasses and a jacket and tie, talks to the shaggy-haired man.
RUSHING MAN: Hi! I’m your public defender. Unfortunately, I’ve been assigned so many defendants that introducing myself is all the time I have for your case this month.
RUSHING MAN: See you at your trial!
PANEL 4
This panel is colored in shades of blue, except for the cash, which is colored in green.
A group of cops is dancing merrily while grinning. One cop waggles his midsection; one imitates John Travolta’s disco pose from “Saturday Night Fever”; a couple dances in a pair, arms on each other’s shoulders; a few others are kicking and throwing their arms up into the hair. It’s a celebration. Green cash is filling the air, raining down on them.
COPS (said by several in unison): MONEY DANCE!
