Go Figure
For those of you who don’t like math or confronting reality, here are some numbers that should really wrinkle your chin.
First $100 million. That’s how much the financial industry spent lobbying Congress to revoke Depression-era safety measures and to allow let banks, securities firms and insurance companies to all get under the pecuniary sheets together. In the Senate, those who supported the industry got an average of $38,000 in campaign contributions in the first nine months of this year, while those in opposition only got an average of $6,000. In the House, supporters got $18,000, while opponents picked up only $6,700.
More numbers from another heavy hitter, the pharmaceutical industry. I was picking up some antihistamines at the local CostCo, and doing some comparison pricing. The brand name stuff was $8.61 for 40 12-milligram pills. The store brand was $3.39 for 600 of the 4-milligram size. And no, it’s not comparing apples to oranges; maybe oranges to tangerines. But the brand-name stuff was ten times the price of the generic.
Now folks, I’ve been taking these pills for almost forty years, at various times when my allergies kick up and in, and I gotta tell ya, there is something very wrong for the drug company to be charging so much for the brand name stuff. Especially since it used to be much, much cheaper back when it was a prescription drug. The pharmaceutical firm says, Oh, but we have to include the cost of research. Gimme a break. By the time something has been on the market for this long, yer talkin’ an enormous profit margin. Oh, but government regulations are expensive to comply with. Comply with this. It’s just about greed.
Here are two numbers from another industry giant. They’re from the Exxon and Mobil. Apparently, their merger is not going to cost 9,000 jobs as originally forecast. Nope. Sixteen thousand jobs will be lost. Those of you who are surprised, raise your hand. Would you like to buy a nice bridge to Brooklyn, maybe?
Finally, try the number 5,000. I had known this statistic, first learning about it back in 1992. But it recently resurfaced in an article about one of my least favorite political figures, Pat Buchanan. And it’s scary but I found myself easily agreeing with Buchanan who wants the US to allow the flow of humanitarian aid to countries that we otherwise deem our enemies. He points to Iraq where our blockade of food and medicine has cost the lives of 5,000 children every month since the Gulf War. That’s half a million children dying for lack of basic necessities as a result of US policy.
These numbers are stories in themselves, but not stories we want to hear. Nonetheless.....
And that’s SetonnoteS...I’m Tony Seton.
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