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Last month's Smarter Harper's Index
"Harper's Index" is a registered trademark of Harper's magazine
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Selected excerpts from the October 2003 Harper's Index
Percentage of Americans who will save less that $100 on their 2006 federal taxes as a result of this year’s tax cuts: 88
Average amount these Americans will save: $4
Of course, Harper’s is trying to portray the Bush tax cuts as a sop for the rich while the majority of Americans get crumbs. The problem with this argument is that the total American tax burden falls so overwhelming on the “rich” that when there is a tax cut, they are going to gain the most in total dollars. However, in terms of percentage of income, the “rich” will still pay almost all the taxes in America.
Data from the IRS (2000 data) indicates the following:
- The top 1% of taxpayers pay 37.4% of all income taxes - $367 billion
- The top 10% pay $67.3% of all taxes - $660 billion.
- The bottom half of taxpayers paid in a total of $38 billion, or about one-tenth of the top 1%’s tax burden and about 4% of the total tax burden.
So guess what: when taxes are cut, the benefits go to those who pay taxes. And that was a cute statistical trick by citing the “average amount Americans will save” since about a third of Americans pay no federal income tax at all (paying much more into the payroll tax instead). Averaging in zero a couple times brings that average refund way down; the median tax savings would have been more honest, but then it’s Harper’s.
Months before September 11th that Dick Cheney’s Energy Task Force investigated Iraq’s oil resources: 6
What possible purpose does this entry serve other than to plant the idea that some Tri-Lateral Commission/Rand Corporation conspiracy planned a national tragedy? Unfortunately, the idea seems to have taken root with some people.
Years before Enron declared bankrupcy in 2001 that the IRS asked the SEC to investigate the firm: 2.5
Number of SEC investigations of Enron that resulted: 0
Speak of the devil. But wait a moment: two-and-a-half years before 2001 means that Bill Clinton’s administration allowed the Enron scandal to blossom! Thanks Bill!
Number of U.S. troops that have died in Iraq and Afghanistan in the last two years: 354
Number who died in Vietnam 1963-1964: 324
Let the vapid comparisons to Vietnam begin. I’m too tired and disgusted to explain why Afghanistan and Iraq were critical to the war on terror, how it sends a message to other terror states and such. So let’s focus on the stats. Harper’s needed to tie American actions in the Middle East to Vietnam in any way they could (all the countries have “A”s in their names?) so they looked at the early days of action before Lyndon Johnson pushed through the Gulf of Tonkin resolution. As this data from the Vietnam Veteran’s Wall Memorial web page, American deaths rocketed from 206 in 1964 to 1,863 in 1965 before peaking at over 16,000 deaths in 1968.
Harper’s, of course, would make an argument that the early days of Vietnam parallel the nascent efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq. But the Viet Cong were openly supported by a world superpower and used jungle guerilla tactics to drag out the war. The Taliban in Afghanistan and the remnants of the Hussein rear-guard are broken and scattered and working off their ingrained hatred for the United States as we try to rebuild their countries.
Number of the United Nations 15 ongoing peacekeeping missions that have been in operation for at least a decade: 8
The United States pays a full one-quarter of all the expenses of the United Nations, proving once again Milton Friedman’s argument about “ways to spend money.” When you’re spending somebody else’s money on somebody other than yourself, you don’t care how much things cost or the quality of the product.
Minimum number of states where tuition at one or more public universities will be raised by at least 20% this year: 7
This statistic dovetails beautifully with this New York Times article – Jacuzzi U. - about how colleges are adding perks to attract new students: “Critics call them multimillion-dollar luxuries that are driving up university debts and inflating the cost of education. Colleges defend them as compulsory attractions in the scramble for top students and faculty, ignored at their own institutional peril.” Of course, when I was at Rutgers, we had a basketball court with just one netless hoop – and we loved it!
Number of states that require energy companies to derive a percentage of their energy from renewable resources: 13
Number of U.S. Senators who voted against a similar measure to take effect in 2020: 70
“A percentage” for the state utilities is typically in the low low single digits, while the “similar” measure that the Senate rejected required a full 20% of all of the nation’s energy to be produced by renewable energy sources. Currently, less than 2% of the country’s energy is produced from renewable sources and nearly all of that is from hydroelectric dams. The 20% requirement was impossible given the economic realities of sources like solar and wind and was sure to send electric rates through the roof. Some Senators saw the plan correctly as idealism over pragmatism and voted it down; others (Kerry, Kennedy) couldn’t resist the moral vanity of fighting for Mother Earth.
I specifically mention the Massachusetts senators because they are both actively fighting against an offshore wind farm in Nantucket Sound. Backed by the liberal denizens of Martha’s Vineyard who don’t want their ocean view upset, they have argued that there is an aesthetic cost of the wind turbines that is too great to bear. Sacrifice, after all, is for the little people.
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"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics"
-Benjamin Disraeli
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Email: MadSwede10 - at - aol - dot - com
Thanks for reading!
Eric
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