The 2007 Statistical Abstract of the United States was released today by the Census bureau, an annual festival for numbers crunchers. Which facts do you think economists would find useful? The truly motivated can find the abstract here.
Friday, December 15, 2006
Who Americans Are and What They Do
The 2007 Statistical Abstract of the United States was released today by the Census bureau, an annual festival for numbers crunchers. Which facts do you think economists would find useful? The truly motivated can find the abstract here.
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10 comments:
Wow. How do they find this stuff out? Is there a survey that gets filled out? I'd hate to have the job of the person who crunches all the numbers, but I can certainly see how usefull this information is, and I'm sure companies pay big bucks for it, right? I love that Nevada has the highest divorce rate, as if that even needs to be said. I think if any one piece of data describes our changing world the best, it's "a shift in what college freshman described as their primary objecives." Its almost saddening.
I found this article very interesting. The census shows that our country has become dependent on technology and it occupies most of our time. Kind of like how I have to do all my economics homework on my computer. The article mentions something that I found a little confusing, how is a bed more dangerous then a bicycle? The article also mentions that the average house hold is larger than it used to be, they say this is due to America’s problem of over weight citizens but doesn’t the theory that people want what’s bigger and better than what everyone else has factor into the bigger home idea?
Well Laura, colleges are going in that direction- online homework. And beds are dangerous. I would bet that a few of my students were dropped as infants.
And Ben, there are buildings filled with people who crunch the numbers after a scientific survey each year.
This article is very interesting indeed. I agree with Laura that this country is too dependent on technology. Believe it or not, there was once a time when the kind of technology we have today did not exist. What did the people do for fun then? But maybe the technology is helping considering the fact that in 1970 only 2,000 women earned professional degrees and in 2004 this number went up to 41,000. Could an increase in teh use of technology done this? Technology allows more people to further their futures, and I think surveys like this help people to see how far our country has come, and hopefully we will continue to grow.
Yes, I really enjoyed reading this article it had a lot of random information that actually serves as synecdoche for our society as a whole. I am very happy to hear that women are gaining better roles in the work force (eg more women doctors) I also found it very funny that more people get injured from wheelchairs than lawnmowers...it could be very true, i got really nauseous when they took me out of the hospital in a wheelchair :P It was also very ironic to see that we are trying to be 'healthier' by drinking larger amounts of water, yet we still remain the largest people.
It is good that our consumption of bottled water has increased nearly tenfold. Water has been replacing soda, which means that we are healthier. This in turn means that the cost on our health insurance goes down because we don't have to pay for as much diabetes medicine for Joe Shmoe who drank 3 gallons of Pepsi a day.
The TV statistic tells us that we are in an age of advertising; we are exposed to them constantly. America is unparalleled in its consumer culture and its obsession with things. Companies can afford to hand over millions of dollars for 30 seconds of adds......
....However, at least a million people don't even have a decent place to live. Wealth distribution is extremely skewed, the poor get poorer and the rich get richer.
We live in the age of information where everyone is always connected. While this makes us more productive, an unfortunate side effect is that now we have 208 million morons who won't shut up and just let me endure my elevator ride in silence.
See, all that economic insight from just the teaser. I didn't even have to read the article. SCORE!
This article is really informative. It shows us that Americans are becoming more soically isolated because of the increases in technology, which allow us to do everything from our computers. Though this does increase productivity, it does take away from peoples social development, which is very much needed, especially in the business and merketing fields. Other things that srtuck me as interesting is the evening out of men and woemn in certain fields, such as medicine; and the change from college graduates from wanting a peacful sate of mind or whatever to wanting to be financially sound. I thought people always wanted to be rich.
This article is very interesting and makes you think; how so the ycollect all that informaton. It cantained lots of random facts that ive never even thought of. 208 million americans have cell-phones and talk for an average of 3 mins each call. This shows that Americans rely on technology for almost everything.
this artical shows that we consume so much more then we use to. we consume every thing from water to electricity to power our cell phones and computers. it is rediculace how many people have cell phones for instance there are 3rd graders who have them and not the disney one or the kiddy one but razers this showes that the picture of the baby with the cellphone is pritty close to how it is. this is great for the industries that make them but everyone is being consumed by the latest trend. such a drinking bottled water its great for our health but we are still not heathy with all our trips to McDonalds. and now that water is become such a trend people are takeing advantage and creating desinger water. kinda sad when you can buy water with a "scoop" label on it.
this article was really enjoyable and interesting and it seems as though through the growth of technology that americans have become more isolated within the technology itself. The technology is great and obviously allows for our lives to be easier in accomplishing diffrent tasks though knowing that the average american watched more than 64 days worth of televisioon and the average time on a cell phone call is 3 minutes shows that we've somewhat become isolated within the technology and cleary dependent on it
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