Archive for April, 2007
How out of control is the national debt?
->National debt as % of GNP 1941-2011 (est last few years ), red areas are Republican presidencies.
It is certainly climbing, which is never a good thing. The best way to look at debt is as a percentage of income. A five thousand dollar debt is a very different thing to someone earning $30,000 a year than to someone earning $130,000.
Debt as a percent of national debt has been climbing since Reagan went on his spending spree. It slowed down and began to fall under Clinton, but W has also treated our money as something to be spent not saved.
But we have been in worse shape. Debt surpassed 121% of GNP at the end of WWII. We paid it down to a low of 32% of GNP before Reagan took office in 1980.
So should we worry about the debt then? Yes we should. We need to upgrade electric plants and grids, internet and cell phone access, and other things the future will bring that we can’t yet imagine. That will take money and usually only happens when the government jump starts funding. If we are to stay competitive and maintain the world’s best military we need to keep up with the times in infrastructure and in science. The government has been the largest investor in both of those sectors. That is why we need to force the federal government to be more responsible with our dollars.
The debt is more of a risk now than it was in past times. After WWII the United States was the best investment around. Now China and the EU are competing with the United States for investment dollars. It is more likely that our sources of debt funding will move on to more stable, higher growth economies to invest their dollars.
US national debt as I watch is $8,823,890,900,000 short of income
US Social Security is up $2,088,527,700,000 more in income than expenses
Other US trust funds are up $3,594,976,500,000 more in income than expenses
So the problem is not Social Security despite what the news media and federal politicians tell you. It is in the black.
Who’s holding the foreign debt ( in billions )?
Japan $627 ( 29%)
China $401 (19%)
UK $119 (6%)
Oil Countries $111 (5%)
Caribbean Banks $66 (3%)
Brazil $61 (3%)
Luxembourg $60 (3%)
Taiwan $58 (3%)
HK $57 (3%)
Korea $57 (3%)
Germany $48 (2%)
Mexico $35 (2%)
Switzerland $33 (2%)
Singapore $31 (1%)
Canada $29 (1%)
Turkey $25 (1%)
France $23 (1%)
Netherlands $22 (1%)
India $20 (1%)
Thailand $17 (1%)
Sweden $15 (1%)
Italy $14 (1%)
Israel $13 (1%)
Ireland $13 (1%)
Poland $13 (1%)
Beglium $12 (1%)
Norway $12 (1%)
Other $145
* Oil countries: Ecuador/Venezuela/Indonesia/Bahrain/Iran/Iraq/Kuwait/Oman/Qatar/Saudi Arabia/UAE/Algeria/Gabon/Libya/Nigeria
More Information:
Random nature pictures from around The Woodlands
Notice all those turtles checking me out under the bridge? I think they were hoping I’d fall in and someone would score an ipod or camera.
Causes of death Massachusetts vs Texas
So I was wandering around the net looking for some interesting statistics to dig into and ran across the CDC cause of death tables. I thought it’d be interesting to see how Texas compared to home.
Heart disease leads both states 25% for Mass. and 26% for Texas. Cancer comes in second at 25% for Mass. and 22% for Texas. Third is other heart/vascular stuff at 6% each.
But then things diverge. What is interesting is accidental deaths. They make up 2.5% of Massachusetts deaths and 5.4% of Texas deaths. Texas being a much larger state with a whole lot more people that’s a whole lot more accidental deaths and I wondered is it because we have more idiot proofing in Mass. enabling idiots to live longer? Or is it that Texas has more idiots? Or is it the huge difference in gun laws and gun ownership between the two states?
Traffic deaths are first for both with Mass. coming in at 37% of accidental deaths and Texas at a huge 45% of accidental deaths.
Number two is where things get interesting again. The number two cause of accidental deaths in Mass. is falls coming in at 20%. Probably winter has a lot to do with that. Poisoning is the number two cause of accidental death in Texas accounting for 18% of accidental deaths. It is only responsible for 8% of Mass. deaths. Almost all of these poisoning deaths in both states were due to complications of medical and surgical care.
So it is not idiots or idiot proofing, it is bad medical care. If you want to live long in Texas stay as far away from doctors and hospitals as possible.
{ Death by firearm in Texas was .8% Mass. was .2% neither was a significant contributor to death accidental or otherwise. VP Cheney must not spend much time hunting in either state. }
The demise of the great white male?
We’ve all been hearing across the news, forums, and blogs how white males are becoming a minority in the United States. As of 2005 white males made up 1/3 of the US population. They are already a minority. I’m not sure if they haven’t accepted that fact or if anyone has dared to tell them yet?
Now the hue and cry I’ve been hearing blames the decline on immigration from non-north European countries. However, 135,000 less males than would normally be expected have been born in the last 30 years. There are 17 less males being born per 10,000 births in the US. But black male births have increased slightly over this time.
Then we have the Darwin Effect. Despite decades of idiot-proofing and that traditionally 105 men are born for every 100 females men still do themselves in in great numbers. Somewhere around age 18 the number of males and females are equal and it’s all downhill from there.
Researchers have been able to generate sperm cells from men’s bone marrow and expect the same technique will work on women. Babies born from sperm created from women’s bone marrow will be female since women do not carry the Y chromosome.
It was also reported this week that interracial marriages have soared. 2% of 1970s marriages were interracial, 7% are currently interracial.
So it would seem that perhaps immigration is not the cause of the coming minority of white men.
Women live longer than men because we don’t kill ourselves
Male Declining in the US., 135,000 fewer White Males Born During Past 30 Years
Say goodbye to Imus and radio
I won’t miss Imus, I gave up listening to radio long ago. Regular radio was far too crude, especially before my morning coffee and NPR was always begging for money.
Luckily a few years back podcasts started showing up. Some are classes, some are serialized novels, some are radio type shows. Almost all are free. The easiest way to manage them is to subscribe through iTunes ( which is free from Apple if you don’t already have it ) iTunes will automatically check for new episodes and download them for you.
You can listen to them on your computer or any portable mp3 player.
Here’s some of my favorites:
Scott Sigler has several sci-fi novels he has written and been reading
JC Hutchins has been reading his 3 novel Seventh Son series
Naked Scientist has a one hour science show weekly
Cory Doctorow had been reading his novels and podcasting his talks
Grammar Girl has quick and dirty grammar tips
Science@NASA, short 5 minute astronomy podcast
Skepticality, skeptical podcast
Directories of Podcasts:
And of course the iTunes store at Apple.
