Some Things the Numbers Tell Us Today

These statements are accurate as of November, 2010:

Percentage of Americans who say government programs do not help familes: 54
Percentage of American families that do not get government benefits: 30

Rank of China's GDP: per person: 94 as a nation: 2

Percentage of developing nations' economies that grew faster than US:
Decade of the 1990s: 48
Decade of 2000s: 89

Number of offshore oil and gas leases apprived by Feds since 2005: 4,603
Number of offshore wind projects: 1

Amount the state of California spent in 2009 on each minor in juvenile detention: $224,712
Amount spent on each student in the Oakland school system: $4,945

All of the above are from Harper's Magazine's "Index" of January, 2011 issue.

In an essay in Foreign Affairs called "The Demographic Future," Nicholas Eberstadt describes the coming global manpower decline. Over the next two decades, for example, there will be a 30 percent decline in the number of Chinese between the ages of 15 and 29 - 100 million fewer workers.

From David Brooks' (New York Times) column of December 31, 2010