FUN WITH NUMBERS

In a post on basic math skills and the ability to understand current events, Tom Blumer is convinced many of today's high school — and college — graduates don't have them. Here is an example from recent news:

Problem: President Obama claims that his health care plan will cost $1 trillion over 10 years while reducing the number of Americans without health insurance from 46 million to 30 million. If all of this comes to pass, how much will taxpayers shell out for the average newly insured person per year, even if the expected drop in the number of uninsured occurs immediately?

Answer: $6,250 ($1 trillion ÷ 10 ÷ the 16 million alleged reduction in the uninsured).

Blumer asks some interesting questions based on the numbers:

[H]ealth insurance costs are high, but any pre-Medicare single person without major health issues should be able to get gold-plated coverage for far less than $6,250. The result also implies that the government will be shelling out an absurd $25,000 for a family of four. Where is all that money going to go? And how in the world can the Obama plan claim to be reducing costs?

This is one example of four; taken together, they are an indictment of ... something. The Obama administration? Literacy? Math skills? Critical thinking? Journalism? Common sense? All of the above?

Read Blumer’s post (and the following comments) and decide for yourself.