Facts that should Matter
I am not naïve enough to suggest that “facts” carry the day with regard to decision making or election outcomes. My experience suggests that emotions and belief systems are more powerful factors. Regardless I think that there are numerous, problematic facts about our country that should matter to patriots.
Legal Issues:
Facts: The USA has 4.2 % of the world’s population but incarcerates 19.2% of all the worlds inmates.
Facts: Our population is less than 65% of the EU, but we incarcerate almost five times as many inmates.
Facts: The direct annual “reported” direct cost of operating our prisons is just under $85 Billion or $40,000 per inmate. There are numerous indirect costs that occur as a result of a high incarceration rate which can arguably double this cost to the taxpayer.
Facts: We have over 1.3 million lawyers, that’s a lawyer for every 244 for every man, woman & child and ranks 2nd among all the world’s countries in lawyers per capita.
Fact: The average time on death row, prior to execution is eight years.
Facts: The intentional homicide rate in our country is 5 per 100,000. The majority of these murders are committed by either friends or family of the victim.
Fact: Our homicide rate is three times that of the average for the EU countries.
Facts: The USA has 298 police officers per capita while the average for the EU is 314. It is interesting to note that the five Scandinavian countries average only 180.
Fact: There have been 237 deaths from Mass Shootings (incidents with over 4 deaths) in the last five years.
Comments: Given the facts what are our elected representatives doing to lower the homicide rate and the unfair cost in both lives and money to our residents?
Sustainability Issues:
Fact: Our planet has a limited amount of resources to provide sustainability for our residents. Such things as food, water, materials to support manufacturing and the list goes on.
Fact: Experts that study this issue estimate that we have the ability sustain a range of 3.5 to 5 billion people at a reasonable standard of living.
Fact: Our current populations stand at just under 7.6 billion.
Fact: It took tens of thousands of years to reach a population of 3.8 billion and only 50 years to add another 3.8 billion.
Fact: If the current trend continues, we will reach a population of 10 billion by 2050.
Fact: Some good news is that the experts predict that growth will decline and top out at about 11 billion by the end of this century.
The not good news is that there will be far fewer young people to support retirement programs for the aging and we will have too many people for our resources to support. The prognosis is a significant decrease in the standard of living and likely more violence as groups vie to control the resources that are available.