Reply #109: For the Number Wonks [View All]

[DemReadingDU]

From Dan W's blog
http://ashizashiz.blogspot.com/

IT'S JUST BASIC MATH!!! It's neither 'gloom-and-doom' hocus pocus, nor decidedly a-factual Nostradamus-esque visions of the future...it's just math.

Numbers gleaned from several sources, including Wiki sources & the U.S. Census Bureau. Some sources quoted directly

The United States population is roughly 305,000,000
About 79% of Americans live in cities or suburbs
Over 50% live in cities with populations over 50,000
Over 250 cities in the U.S. have over 100,000 people
9 cities have more than 1 million residents
There are roughly 6000 registered hospitals in the US
10 to 15% of Americans live below the poverty line
In 2007, 37.3 million Americans lived in poverty.
The richest 10% of Americans possess 70% of the wealth
The top 1% possesses 33.4% of net wealth.
Government activity accounts for about 12% of GDP.
The service sector accounts for about 65% of GDP
The leading sector by income is finance and insurance
Agriculture accounts for less than 1% of GDP
About 150 million people “are” employed with earnings
80% are full-time jobs
79% are employed in the service sector
Health care is the leading field of employment
There are roughly 70 million public school students
There are about 25 million businesses in the US
Small businesses are about 50% of the workforce
Roughly 29 million children get free lunch
There are roughly 95,000 public schools in the U.S.
There are roughly 6.8 million teachers
The national average salary for teachers is $45,000
Average 4 year college tuition, about $35,000
About $8,000 per-pupil is spent
26,300 food pantries in the United States

OK, let’s have fun with extrapolation!!

We’ll begin with unemployment.
more...

Next let’s examine poverty.
more...

How about growth:
more...

lots more...
http://ashizashiz.blogspot.com/2009/02/you-want-numbers-ill-give-you-numbers.html


edit: In previous postings, Dan has mentioned that he has been a high school history teacher for 20 years and a high school principal, and is currently employed at Dartmouth College.