GBFan
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- Oct 30, 2013
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I recently read a book called Breakout: Pioneers of the Future, Prison Guards of the Past. It is written by a noted conservative author and politician. The thesis is that we are on the cusp of amazing technical breakthroughs, but that the prison guards of the past try to quash these changes at every corner.
But, I don’t want to argue the thesis that big government is one of the prison guards (along with teachers’ unions, for example). Instead, I just want to quote some of the statistics quoted in the book – all with appropriate referenced cites. I’m not going to list all the references, mainly because I’m too lazy, but if you question a statement, I recommend you visit the library and get a copy of Breakout so you can see the cite.
These statistics are presented in no particular order, but I think it will be easy to see the train of thought.
1) The cost of a college education has increased twelvefold, or 1,120 per cent since 1978 – four times the rate of inflation.
2) In 2013, two-thirds of graduating college students had outstanding school loans, with an average balance amounting to 60% of their annual salary.
3) Udacity, an online university, had an 83% finishing rate – as opposed to the 5% rate in an ordinary brick and mortar college.
4) The technology exists to take a student from kindergarten to a masters degree for about $7,000. [my note – primarily, Khan Academy, Udacity, and Kaplan]
5) The average cost of a case of breast cancer is $128,500.
6) A leading heart surgeon in India charges $1,583 for coronary bypass surgery. The distortions in the American medical system produce a price of $106,000 for the same procedure at Cleveland Clinic.
7) “You can do blood tests, saliva tests, urine tests, sweat tests – all kinds of things – through your phone. The sensor units cost about $200 each.” – Dr. Eric Topol, Chief of Cardiology, Cleveland Clinic.
8) As the American Spectator reports, the secretary of HHS will “determine what type of insurance coverage every American is required to have. She can influence what hospitals can participate in certain plans, can set up health insurance exchanges within states against their will, and even regulate McDonald’s Happy Meals.”
9) The House Energy and Commerce Committee recently reported that “consumers purchasing health insurance on the individual market may face premium increases of nearly 100 percent on average, with potential highs eclipsing 400%”
10) The Congressional Budget Office now estimated the law [Obamacare] will cost taxpayers $1.8 trillion by 2013, double the original projection.
11) Avik Roy of the Manhattan Institute reports that development costs rose from $100 million per drug in 1975 (2012 dollars) to $1.3 billion in 2005 – a thirteenfold increase. The bulk of this increase comes from the exploding costs of the phase III clinic trials which the FDA scrutinized heavily. In the six years from 1999 to 2005, Roy reports, “the average length of a clinic trail increase by 70%; the average number of routine procedures per trial increased by 65%,; and the average clinical trial staff work burden increased by 67%.”
12) … t]he United States has 1.4 trillion barrels of recoverable oil and 2.74 quadrillion cubic feet of natural gas. To put that in perspective, that’s enough to
a) Fuel every car in the United States for 430 years
b) Provide the US with electricity for 575 years …
c) Fuel homes heated by natural gas in the US for 857 years
13) In 2010, the federal government spent $16 million to fund improvement of sidewalks in Boynton, OK, a town of 248 people.
14) Council Hill, OK received $245,000 for “pedestrian improvement”, about $1,900 for every person living there.
15) The Code of Federal Regulations exploded from 19,000 pages in 1949 to almost 170,000 pages in 2011.
16) For a family making $49,705 a year, the annual cost of regulation embedded in their daily life is $14, 768, or 30% of their household budget.
17) In 2012, the federal government added 854 new rules affecting small businesses.
18) Ballou High School in Washington, DC - Of Ballou’s 1,389 students, seventy nine have made the honor roll: sixty-seven girls and twelve boys. (My note: Ballou was held up as a model for schools in the ghetto areas of DC)
19) In New York City, only 30% of students are proficient in math and only 26% in reading.
20) Only 21 percent of Chicago eighth-graders are proficient in reading.
21) Total welfare benefits today provide more than a minimum-wage job in thirty-four states.
22) In seven states, they provide more than a job paying twenty dollars an hour, and in five other states, welfare provides more than a job paying fifteen dollars an hour.
23) In Hawaii, the study found “a person leaving welfare for work would have to earn more than $60,590 a year to be better off.”
24) In ten states, welfare pays more than the entry-level salary for a teacher.
25) One out of every thirty-one Americans is under correctional supervision. One quarter of the world’s prisoners are incarcerated in the US.
26) Seventy percent of prisoners rank in the two lowest levels of prisoners.
27) In 2006, 47% of the residents of Detroit were functionally illiterate.
I have tried to avoid the conservative solutions, but only list the facts for further discussion. Feel free to talk among yourselves. You must admit they are some pretty sobering statistics.
But, I don’t want to argue the thesis that big government is one of the prison guards (along with teachers’ unions, for example). Instead, I just want to quote some of the statistics quoted in the book – all with appropriate referenced cites. I’m not going to list all the references, mainly because I’m too lazy, but if you question a statement, I recommend you visit the library and get a copy of Breakout so you can see the cite.
These statistics are presented in no particular order, but I think it will be easy to see the train of thought.
1) The cost of a college education has increased twelvefold, or 1,120 per cent since 1978 – four times the rate of inflation.
2) In 2013, two-thirds of graduating college students had outstanding school loans, with an average balance amounting to 60% of their annual salary.
3) Udacity, an online university, had an 83% finishing rate – as opposed to the 5% rate in an ordinary brick and mortar college.
4) The technology exists to take a student from kindergarten to a masters degree for about $7,000. [my note – primarily, Khan Academy, Udacity, and Kaplan]
5) The average cost of a case of breast cancer is $128,500.
6) A leading heart surgeon in India charges $1,583 for coronary bypass surgery. The distortions in the American medical system produce a price of $106,000 for the same procedure at Cleveland Clinic.
7) “You can do blood tests, saliva tests, urine tests, sweat tests – all kinds of things – through your phone. The sensor units cost about $200 each.” – Dr. Eric Topol, Chief of Cardiology, Cleveland Clinic.
8) As the American Spectator reports, the secretary of HHS will “determine what type of insurance coverage every American is required to have. She can influence what hospitals can participate in certain plans, can set up health insurance exchanges within states against their will, and even regulate McDonald’s Happy Meals.”
9) The House Energy and Commerce Committee recently reported that “consumers purchasing health insurance on the individual market may face premium increases of nearly 100 percent on average, with potential highs eclipsing 400%”
10) The Congressional Budget Office now estimated the law [Obamacare] will cost taxpayers $1.8 trillion by 2013, double the original projection.
11) Avik Roy of the Manhattan Institute reports that development costs rose from $100 million per drug in 1975 (2012 dollars) to $1.3 billion in 2005 – a thirteenfold increase. The bulk of this increase comes from the exploding costs of the phase III clinic trials which the FDA scrutinized heavily. In the six years from 1999 to 2005, Roy reports, “the average length of a clinic trail increase by 70%; the average number of routine procedures per trial increased by 65%,; and the average clinical trial staff work burden increased by 67%.”
12) … t]he United States has 1.4 trillion barrels of recoverable oil and 2.74 quadrillion cubic feet of natural gas. To put that in perspective, that’s enough to
a) Fuel every car in the United States for 430 years
b) Provide the US with electricity for 575 years …
c) Fuel homes heated by natural gas in the US for 857 years
13) In 2010, the federal government spent $16 million to fund improvement of sidewalks in Boynton, OK, a town of 248 people.
14) Council Hill, OK received $245,000 for “pedestrian improvement”, about $1,900 for every person living there.
15) The Code of Federal Regulations exploded from 19,000 pages in 1949 to almost 170,000 pages in 2011.
16) For a family making $49,705 a year, the annual cost of regulation embedded in their daily life is $14, 768, or 30% of their household budget.
17) In 2012, the federal government added 854 new rules affecting small businesses.
18) Ballou High School in Washington, DC - Of Ballou’s 1,389 students, seventy nine have made the honor roll: sixty-seven girls and twelve boys. (My note: Ballou was held up as a model for schools in the ghetto areas of DC)
19) In New York City, only 30% of students are proficient in math and only 26% in reading.
20) Only 21 percent of Chicago eighth-graders are proficient in reading.
21) Total welfare benefits today provide more than a minimum-wage job in thirty-four states.
22) In seven states, they provide more than a job paying twenty dollars an hour, and in five other states, welfare provides more than a job paying fifteen dollars an hour.
23) In Hawaii, the study found “a person leaving welfare for work would have to earn more than $60,590 a year to be better off.”
24) In ten states, welfare pays more than the entry-level salary for a teacher.
25) One out of every thirty-one Americans is under correctional supervision. One quarter of the world’s prisoners are incarcerated in the US.
26) Seventy percent of prisoners rank in the two lowest levels of prisoners.
27) In 2006, 47% of the residents of Detroit were functionally illiterate.
I have tried to avoid the conservative solutions, but only list the facts for further discussion. Feel free to talk among yourselves. You must admit they are some pretty sobering statistics.
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