We just found out that our US Post Office lost $8 billion dollars last year. We are always seeing these large numbers in the news, but do people really have any understanding of the significance of these big numbers? I don't think so. My guess is that 90% of our citizens could not tell you what the $8 billion dollar loss by the Post Office amounted to per person. Seems that most people get all mixed up when the numbers are followed by more than one or two zeros. I guess that is because the USA ranks about 25th in the world of the top 30 economies in basic math.
We know that there are about 300 million people in the USA. 300 million is 3 followed by 8 zeros. 8 billion is 8 followed by 9 zeros. To divide the $8 billion dollars by the 300 million people, we subtract 8 zeros from both numbers. This leaves us with $80 for every 3 people. Now if we assume the aveage family size is 3, then the US Post Office has a loss of $80 per family or $26.67 per person. I don't think that I buy $80 worth of stamps per year. If that is the case, the US Post Office would have to more than double their rates to break even.
This business of people not understanding basic math affects the quality of our voters in many areas. I have heard on the news that the state of California has a deficit or about $28 billion. The state of California has about 30 million people and about 10 million 3 person families. Their deficit works, out using basic math, to $933.33 per person and $2,799.99 per family of 3. Once you take these big numbers down to an understandable level, people can see their significance.
How about a nation debit of $14 trillion dollars? Our population is about 300 million. $14 trillion is 14 followed by 12 zeros. Recall that 300 million is 3 followed by 8 zeros. Again, using simple math, we subtract 8 zeros from both numbers and get $140,000 divided by 3 for $46,667 per person. For families of 3 this works out to $140,000 per family. We know that half of Americans don't pay any tax at all, so the families who do pay taxes will have to come up with twice this amount for a total of $280,000 per family.
See what happens when you understand basic math and can boil big numbers down to a size that one can understand?
