Mrs. Nononsense sent Barbara and me out in the hall to drill on multiplication tables. Eighth grade final exams were coming up.
We sat on the stairs and began 7 x 9 =? We had a slight problem. I was more focused on addition than multiplication. I concentrated on 1 + 1 = 2 blooming breasts.
When Mrs. Nononsense called us back in the room and tested us, I don’t think she was surprised at our differing proficiency. A couple of weeks later, she invited the class over to her apartment for a buffet supper – and perhaps a hint or two about social graces.
I went on to learn algebra, geometry, calculus and statistics. In due time, I learned the differential calculus of a woman from my wife.
That was 1945. This is a different world. Or is it?
Of course it is! But a disconnect between two different forms of math seems to persist.
The media and pontificating pundits constantly call our attention to New Year Polls measuring the rising ‘what if’ fear of the USA. On the crawl of one of the cable channels I see: “Bad news happening? Send pictures to (digital address).”
The math of statistical projection is remarkable. Survey 600 to 1000 people. Apply equations. You can now report the opinion of 310,000,000 citizens –with an error rate of only plus or minus 5 %.
There is another math that measures ‘what is’. For instance: in 2000 there were 280,000,000 citizens in the USA and 131,000,000 available jobs. Starting 2010 there are 310,000,000 citizens in the USA and 131,000,000 available jobs. Thirty million more citizens competing for the same number of available jobs has some impact on ‘The Job Crisis’!
The Statistical Abstract of the US Government reports a math of ‘what is’. Going back to the 1950’s, I discover that 60,000+ American government entities gave their elected officials taxing authority. At that time roughly 50% of all workers’ paychecks were issued by these governments.
At the beginning of 2010 this metric of a social fabric providing stability to everyday life had not changed significantly. What did change is the number of Americans and where they live. In the 1950’s there were only three American metros of more than a million residents - two of them with an ocean beach. In the 2010 New Year reporting, our population had more than doubled with four out of five Americans living in some 200 metros of more than a million residents – two thirds of them with an ocean beach.
I wonder as I wander into the autumnal decades of my life! My conundrum centers on a simple fact. This recent decade of my ‘old age’ has been more comfortable, more convenient with more good options than the decade of my ‘coming of age’ begun in 1945.
By no metric has the narrative arc of my life shown any evidence of being exceptional. I’m puzzled by the vengeful anger of the Tea Party movement with its call to ‘re-elect nobody’.
Indeed if this is a majority of voters as polls claim, there will be thousands of experienced elected officials out of a job in 2011. Replaced by anti-tax, anti-regulation, privatize everything for profit ‘it’s my money’ vigilantes.
Our complex social fabric of firefighters, police, schools, courts, emergency services, military, sewage systems, garbage collection, road maintenance and many more government entities with taxing authority is seriously frayed. Could these ‘re-elect nobody’ vigilantes finally rip to shreds the American dream of establishing a more perfect union for the common good and domestic tranquility?
