Numbers (12/01/2012)

Numbers

(12/01/2012)

I am a numbers guy. I feel numbers, and only numbers, give the facts behind any story. “Statistics are like bikinis. What they reveal is suggestive, but what they conceal is vital.” – Aaron Levenstein.

I watch the news regarding the stock market, polling of the electorate, budget numbers, and the health of the economy. The media reports numbers with fanfare, but when digging deeper most are just adjustments to prior months. As an example, in the last four years there has not been a month when the unemployment numbers have not been adjusted upward, worsened, than first released. However, the media does not celebrate the worsening numbers.

As I move through this column, let’s start with this. There are 314,000,000 people in the U.S. and just over 7,000,000,000 in the entire world.

The numbers:

 

  • · 314,000,000 people live in the United States
  • · 234,564,00 Americans eligible to vote
  • · Number who voted for Barak Obama: 62,615,406
  • · Number who voted for Mitt Romey: 59,142,004
  • · Americans that did not vote for either candidate: 113,806,590!

 

  • · In 1969 2,900,000 Americans received food stamps
  • · In November 2012 47,102,780 received food stamps
  • · Cost to taxpayers: $72,000,000,000

 

And my favorite, giving credit where credit is due… I saw this in a Facebook posting yesterday.

  • · Amount of this week’s Powerball lottery: $500,000,000
  • · Why not “share the wealth” as Barak Obama has proposed. That is $1.6 million for every man woman and child in the United States! There’s your economic recovery.