Around the World in 5,000 Words

I’ve already written a fair amount about the 2016 presidential race, particularly the Democratic primary.  I also imagine that lots of folks are probably exhausted from wall-to-wall Trump coverage. “He’s a demagogue!”; “He’s speaks for a disempowered bloc of struggling white Americans!” These are just a couple of the hundreds of Trump narratives that have cluttered the media landscape over the past year.

So today’s article is a trip around both America and the world. The aim is to provide enough information and ideas about global politics and economics to enable people to better understand, analyze and assess current political debates.

For example, we will provide essential context and information that will help folks better judge a US Congressperson’s infrastructure proposal by relating it to the size of the overall federal budget. I will also provide key facts about foreign countries’ populations and economies, so that readers can gain a more informed global perspective.  And we will debunk some of the commonly held misperceptions about the Middle East and global Islam.

Ted Cruz famously said that Trump voters were low-information voters. This article aims to provide some of the facts, data and ideas necessary to enable people to become, if not high-information, then at least higher-information voters. To paraphrase American founding father Thomas Jefferson, the goal is to create a better informed citizenry.

We’ll begin with a survey of key nations around the world. We’ll be looking at simple economic data and demographics about these nations.

We’ll then conclude with an important survey of the US federal budget, and how the government and politicians spend taxpayers’ money.

Here we go!

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WORLD POPULATION

Let’s start with some basics. The population of the world is roughly 7.5 billion. Of that 7.5 billion, China is the largest country, with approximately 1.4 billion people. Like, there’s a lot of people in China. A lot.

India has the second most people, at roughly 1.2 billion.  So taken together, China and India, with 2.6 billion souls, comprise 1/3 of everyone on earth.

By now most people know that China is booming economically, but less people know that India has been on the rise lately too, despite still having a huge poor underclass. So if the 20th century was the American century, the 21st will undoubtedly be the Asian century.

After India, there’s a huge drop off in population among the leaders. The United States is 3rd, but with only 320 million people. In 4th place is Indonesia, with 250 million (more on Indonesia later.) Rounding out the top five is Brazil, at 200 million people. Brazil has obviously been in the news lately because of the Rio Olympics and the fabricated robbery story told by Ryan Lochte and his fellow American swimmers.

With regard to this episode, all I can say is, Ryan, you epitomized the privileged, ugly American going wild and treating a developing country like it’s your personal playground. Good luck with future sponsorships, dude.

Returning to population, other interesting facts to note include Germany, the largest European nation, at #16 in the world, with 80 million people.  Germany’s economy drives the European Union (EU), and it’s why Germany was called on to bail out Greece when it almost defaulted on its debt during the Grexit crisis. This is not to be confused with the UK’s recent Brexit vote to leave the EU, which was based largely on an anti-immigrant, Trumpian sentiment.

What else catches our eye? Russia is #9, with 140 million people, and while its population had been declining steadily since the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991, in recent years improving health care and an influx of immigrants from former Soviet republics has led to moderate population increases.

Nigeria is the largest African nation in the world, at #7 globally, with 175 million people and rising. It’s also the largest economy in Africa, despite a vast poor population. Nigeria, you may have heard, is facing a long-running military and terrorist insurrection from the vile Boko Haram Islamic militant group. “Boko Haram” is generally translated as “Western education is forbidden,” so we know where they stand on matters of modernity and democracy.

However, despite its troubles, Nigeria is a proud nation with a vast legacy of cultural and historical achievements, and its imprint on the African continent cannot be overstated. You may be surprised to learn that Nigeria also has a huge and thriving film industry known as Nollywood. The name is modeled after India’s equally massive film industry, which is known as Bollywood.

In fact, after India, Nigeria has the 2nd largest film industry in the world, based on total output. Maybe it’s time to check out a Nigerian flick?

The smallest nations in the world tend to be island countries such as Tuvalu, Nauru and the Maldives. They’ve been in the news lately for an unfortunate reason, namely that they’re literally sinking under the ocean due to rising seas from global warming. Because of this, in recent years they’ve made repeated pleas to the international community to help stanch a crisis they didn’t create, as they emit virtually zero greenhouse gases themselves.

For the most part, though, it seems the world isn’t listening, despite the recent landmark UN Paris agreement on climate change, which critics feel doesn’t go nearly far enough.

So these island nations have had to resort to more dramatic measures. For example, a few years ago the Maldives government held an official Cabinet meeting underwater — complete with SCUBA gear — to bring attention to the plight of island nations ahead of another UN climate conference. That’s dedication to an issue.

Rounding out the population list, the very tiniest independent nation on earth is Vatican City, where the Pope lives. It’s #234, with 839 holy souls. That’s literally less people than live on my block in Astoria, Queens, NYC.  Praise the Lord and pass the biscuits.

Finally, if we look at regions of the world, Asia has by far the most people at 4.5 billion. In fact, more than 60% of the world lives in Asia. Europe’s total population is 750 million. Africa has a little over 1 billion people, but it’s growing rapidly.

OK, population survey completed. Boom!

 

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GLOBAL ISLAM

Moving on, guess what the largest Muslim nation in the world is? Hint: it’s not what you think. The answer is Indonesia, which as we saw is also the 4th largest country in the world, with 250 million people, the vast majority of whom are Muslim.

Here’s a brief side story. I actually spent a summer living and working in Jakarta, Indonesia’s capital, during graduate school. I had a fantastic time. The country is made up of thousands of islands sprawling across the South China Sea, and it has a remarkable abundance of natural beauty.

Indonesia is certainly an Islamic country, but the type of Islam practiced by most Indonesians would be considered “moderate” by Westerners. There are undoubtedly some highly religious people there, particularly on the outer islands surrounding Java.

But for the most part, Islam blends seamlessly with modern, Western-style development and democracy in Indonesia. [The political system actually shades somewhere between democratic and authoritarian, depending on the year, but lately it’s been democratic.]

Now here’s a confession. I lived in a small apartment on the top floor of an office building in Jakarta that housed the research center where me and my fellow students worked. Every morning at dawn, we’d hear the muezzin’s call to prayer blaring from loudspeakers atop the nearby mosque. The progressive, multicultural, respectful part of me was OK with this. But my ugly American side, and especially the New Yorker in me, wanted to tell him to just shut the hell up and turn off the speakers, I’m trying to sleep! It was a valuable lesson in learning to tolerate and be respectful of cultural differences, even if they were inconvenient to me personally. I was a guest in their country, after all.

Returning to our survey of global Islam, what’s really interesting is that the top five largest Muslim population countries are, in order: Indonesia, India (which is mostly Hindu, but also 15% Muslim), Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Iran. Notice anything surprising here? Not one of them is an Arabic-speaking country. (Iran has about 90 million people, the majority of whom speak Persian or Farsi).

Egypt is the first Arab nation to crack the list, at #6 with around 80 million Muslims. Egypt gained independence from Great Britain in 1922, and by the 1950’s, under revolutionary leader and President Gamel Abdel Nasser, it had become the leading nation in the Arab world due to its vast cultural and historical achievements.

Saudi Arabia, which gained independence around the same time as Egypt, also began to gain influence in the 1950’s due to the discovery of oil. Since that time, these two nations have competed for power and influence in the Sunni Arab world. Iran, which is majority Shia, also competes for influence in the region.

Even though these three countries are the major powers in the Middle East (along with Israel), a quirky thing to note is that the Arab nations most in the news these days, such as Iraq (population 32 million) and Syria (population 23 million) are much smaller than the regional leaders.

But of course both Iraq and Syria are geopolitically and strategically important. As most people know, Syria has been suffering through a five-year long horrific civil war, with hundreds of thousands of deaths and counting, along with massive population displacement.  The Syrian civil war was an unwanted outgrowth of the Arab Spring, when people in the region overthrew authoritarian leaders.  It’s very complicated and has lots causes, factors, and factions, so all I’ll say is the world needs to do much more to put the conflict at the center of the global agenda. Syrians have suffered for far too long.

Americans and much of the world are more familiar with Iraq, which still faces upheaval 13 years after the US invasion and occupation, which resulted in the deaths of over 5,000 Americans and 500,000 Iraqis, as well as the break-up of the country.

Into this volatile mix emerged ISIS, which controls a large tract of territory spanning parts of Iraq and Syria. ISIS, I mean, they’re freaking medieval butcher thugs, what more really needs to be said. They literally kill people suspected of being gay by throwing them off bridges and elevated highways while filming the executions so they can post them on social media as a warning to others.

So they must be defeated, of course, but mainly because folks in the Middle East are suffering terribly living under their control, not because they’re an existential threat to European or US territory.

Because they’re not.

Nevertheless, they’ve inspired some awful terrorist attacks in the West, and this only adds to their menace.

I could go on, but I think we’ve done enough on religion. Feel free to use The Google if you want to know more.

 

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WORLD ECONOMICS

Let’s turn now to world economics for a moment. Boring, right?  Well, not really. There are some key things we should all know that affect both the world and America.

We’ll start with GDP, which stands for Gross Domestic Product.  It’s a measure of the value of all the goods and services produced within a country or region. What it really measures is the size of a nation’s or region’s overall economy.

Of course, a nation’s GDP doesn’t take into account that prices are different in different countries, as well as other statistical factors. But it’s still the most important measurement of raw economic power.

Total world GDP stands at around $78 trillion dollars (a trillion is 1,000 billion). Of that total, the US has the most, with $18.5 trillion, which is almost 1/4 of the total world economy! 

Now as we mentioned, China has been booming over the past decade.  The People’s Republic now has the 2nd largest economy in the world, at $11 trillion. China has actually had incredible success in reducing poverty over the past several decades, as people shift from subsistence farming in the countryside to manufacturing and service work in the cities. Say what you want about the lack of democracy in China — and it’s certainly true — but there’s no denying the material gains the Chinese government has engineered for hundreds of millions of formerly poor Chinese.

Perhaps this is why the Chinese get a little testy at all the Western criticism. I imagine Chinese leaders saying to their Western counterparts something like:”OK guys, we know we have to do better on human rights, but give us some credit on economic development. Our citizens used to regularly die in their 20’s and 30’s, there was mass starvation, disease, and suffering. Look at what we’ve accomplished!”

After China, Japan has the 3rd largest economy in the world,  at $4.5 trillion. One quick point on Japan. It was the first non-western nation to successfully industrialize and become a leading world power. I happen to have studied Japanese, lived in Japan, and spent a significant part of my career working for Japanese organizations, so I may be biased. But my personal feeling is, Japan rocks. The Japanese are some of the most friendly, kind people on earth.

I could go on about Japan, but I don’t want to bore you. Just remember to thank the Japanese Sun God Amaterasu the next time you’re enjoying that spicy tuna roll. Which is totally an American  — or possibly Korean — creation, by the way. I mean, who wants chili oil, or worse yet Sriracha sauce, ruining the purity of that magnificent fish? But I guess everything gets adapted to fit local tastes, so what can you do.

Continuing on, Germany’s economy is 4th in the world, at $3.5 trillion, and the UK is 5th, at $2.7 trillion.

One thing to note is that just as important as total GDP is GDP per capita. This measures the average share of the economy that 1 individual citizen takes home, and it reflects to a large degree the average income of a country’s people.

So by this measurement, Northern European countries like Denmark, Sweden and Switzerland have relatively small economies, based on total GDP.  But their citizens are actually pretty well-off and lead the world in average income, or GDP per capita.

There’s also something the UN created called the Human Development Index (HDI), which measures not only how wealthy a nation’s citizens are, but also how healthy and educated they are.

The HDI includes factors such as life expectancy and educational level attained. Not surprisingly, the HDI world leaders also tend to be in Northern Europe (and Canada), and the bottom rung is made up mostly of struggling nations in Africa and the South Pacific.

One last point on indexes. The UN also compiles a World Happiness Report, which attempts to assess how happy a nation’s people are based on factors such as real GDP per capita (GDP adjusted for inflation), social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom to make life choices, generosity, and perceptions of corruption.

It’s kind of cool, and you can check it out if you like. All I’ll say is, guess who’s at the top? Denmark! Yup, one of those strong social safety net, egalitarian Northern European nations. Metallica’s drummer, Lars Ulrich, is Danish, so maybe Danes growing up with hard rock music has something to do with all that happiness?

Another notable point about GDP is that the European Union as a whole, which includes most of Europe, has a GDP of $16.5 trillion, nearly equal to the US total of $18 trillion .

So the US, Europe and China together have well over half the world’s total wealth. India is also rising fast at $2.3 trillion.

Brazil is the 1st Latin American nation to crack the top ten in GDP, at #9 with $1.5 trillion. However, as we’ve seen in the issues surrounding the Rio Olympics, Brazil is also plagued by rampant poverty, inequality and political dysfunction. Then again, I could say the same thing about my own country, the USA, especially in light of the bizarre 2016 presidential race. So maybe I shouldn’t criticize. You know, glass houses and all that.

Another interesting fact about Brazil is that it has the largest black population outside Africa. About 50% of the country define themselves as black or mixed race. That’s a legacy of colonialism, obviously, as those folks’ ancestors were brought to Brazil from Africa in chains during the three-century long transatlantic slave trade. It’s one of the worst historical examples of man’s inhumanity to man, and that’s putting it mildly.

The wealthiest nation in Africa is Nigeria, at #21 in the world with a $500 billion GDP. South Africa is #39, with $266 billion. The smallest economies in the world are also mainly in sub-Saharan Africa, such as Guinea-Bissau and Gambia, both around $1 billion, which is less than the budget of the city of Boston.  Also at the bottom are those sparsely populated Pacific island nations such as Tonga and Micronesia (around $350 million GDP each).

One point on Africa. It’s true that many nations in Africa, particularly Africa South of the Sahara, are extremely poor. But their poverty doesn’t — and shouldn’t — define them. Africans – and this doesn’t need to be said but I’ll say it anyway — are the same as any other people in the world, with hopes, dreams, fears, and aspirations for the future.

Unfortunately, a combination of deleterious colonial legacies, extremely poor leadership by many African governments, mega-corruption, as well as massive debt and harsh western-imposed rules for economic restructuring in exchange for debt relief, have all converged to lead to the current poor state many sub-Saharan African nations find themselves in.

It’s certainly true that all of these issues need to be addressed. But while we’re doing that, can we at least stop referring to “Africa” as a monolith and recognize that there are over 50 nations on the African continent?  I mean China and Japan get their own name recognition, why not Liberia, Malawi or Mozambique?  It’s really not that complicated, and I think everyone would benefit.

Here’s another side note. I visited Ghana once during graduate school. Ghana is in West Africa, and it was the first sub-Saharan African nation to gain independence, in 1957. Ghanaians have a reputation for being extremely friendly, and I saw this warmth firsthand during my time there. It’s a fairly poor nation, but it has an incredibly rich cultural legacy dating back many millennia, including the famed Ashanti Empire during the 11th century.

Kwame Nkrumah was Ghana’s first leader after independence. He’s an incredibly important figure in early post-colonial African history, and he’s famous for espousing and promoting pan-Africanism, which aimed to strengthen bonds between all peoples of the world of African descent. Nkrumah was heavily influenced by the teachings of Marcus Garvey, the Jamaican pan-Africanist and intellectual, along with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the American literary icon W. E. B. Du Bois. It’s fascinating history, and I recommend The Google if you want to know more.

Now, I don’t meant to abruptly change subjects, but before we wrap up this section I have one more key point to make. Since we mentioned NYC earlier, I feel a duty as a New Yorker, an American, but most importantly as a believer in facts and reason, to point out that New York is not the biggest city in the world. Not even close. We New Yorkers like to think we’re the king, but we’ve only got 8.5 million people. Shanghai is actually #1, with 24 million. Karachi, Pakistan is #2 with 23 million. Also in the top ten are Lagos, Nigeria, and Istanbul, Turkey. Even Mexico City beats New York, though just barely.

However, rest assured, fellow New Yorkers. What we lack in population, we make up for in attitude and style. Bang! Let’s Go Mets!

 

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RACE AND ETHNICITY IN AMERICA AND EUROPE

If we delve a little deeper into demographics, we can see that the industrialized world — mainly the West, plus some East Asian countries — has a good deal of ethnic and racial diversity as well.

The US is around 65% white (non-Hispanic), 13% African American, 17% Hispanic (can be any race), and around 6% Asian.

The majority of African Americans can trace their ancestry to West Africa and, to a lesser extent, Central Africa. Many African Americans also have European and colonial American ancestry.

There is much that can be said about the systemic racism African Americans have endured for centuries in America, as well as the social and economic discrimination they continue to face.

Perhaps the most high-profile development in recent weeks was the decision by San Francisco 49’ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick to protest racial oppression by not standing during the performance of the national anthem before games.

Kaepernick has endured a lot of public criticism for his brave — that seems the only appropriate word — stance. Others have defended both his right to protest and the cause of fighting the racial and social injustice African Americans face on a daily basis.

I personally support Kaepernick, but if you’re on the fence, here are some key facts that illustrate why his protest in so important. In 2014, the median African American household income was $35,000, compared to an overall US median household income of $55,000, and $60,000 for white households. Furthermore, the African American poverty rate in 2013 was 26%, compared to a national average of 15%.

Perhaps most disturbing — with deep-rooted social and economic consequences — is the wealth gap, as opposed to the income gap. By this measure, the median total wealth for white families in 2013 was $142,000. For African American families, median wealth was a meager $11,000. [And for Hispanic families, median wealth was not much better, at $13,700].

Given these stark numbers, if you don’t think that racial injustice exists in America, you’re either willfully ignoring the facts, a dyed-in-the-wool racist, or someone who plainly just doesn’t care about your fellow citizens of different hues.

For my part, I would simply like to say, Houston, we [do] have a problem.

Moving on to the Hispanic population, Mexicans and those of Mexican descent are the largest proportion, at around 65% of the total US Hispanic population.  As we all know, the territory of Mexico used to encompass most of what is modern California, as well as part of the Southwest. What happened? Well, colonialism, imperialism, etc. happened, but that’s for another day.

Nevertheless, our two nations have clearly been intertwined for centuries, sometimes happily, often painfully, but always inextricably. Which is why it’s so hard for me to hear the Infantile Orange One say all the nasty things he’s said about Mexico and its peoples and descendants in the US.

OK, no more on Trump. I know I promised.

Continuing with the list, Americans of Puerto Rican descent are 2nd among Hispanics, at around 10% of the total Hispanic population. Puerto Rico is officially a territory — but not a state — of the US.

At this point I’d like to note that it’s been terrible to see the Puerto Rican economy collapse recently under mountains of debt and economic mismanagement, and to witness millions of Puerto Ricans suffering.

However, it’s also important to remember that American hedge funds hold a large share of the island’s debt, and they’ve been extremely hostile to both the government of Puerto Rico and its citizens. For example, during debt negotiations they’ve insisted on  European-style “austerity” measures, including cutting support for public education and health care, reducing pension benefits for retirees, weakening labor protections, and, if you can believe this, lowering the minimum wage.

Oh those hedge funds, so funny, but actually just so horrible and greedy.

Moving along, the next largest Hispanic population in America is Cubans, in 3rd place with around 5% of the Hispanic population. The once-frozen relationship between the US and Cuba has thawed significantly in recent years, and I certainly hope that process continues.  I particularly hope that ordinary Cubans benefit from the thaw, because Lord knows they’ve been through enough.

Rounding out the top five Hispanic groups are the Salvadoran and Dominican populations. El Salvador went through a horrific civil war in  the 80’s, and is now — along with most of Central America — suffering through a wave of crime and violence from drug cartels and criminal gangs.

Incidentally, remember during the Democratic primary debates when Hillary Clinton said the US shouldn’t accept Central American refugee children fleeing violence? Yeah, me too.

How about Muslims in the US and Europe? Well, it turns out America has a fairly small Muslim population relative to Europe. It’s roughly 3 million people, or 1% of the US population. By contrast, Hindus — mainly Indians — make up 2% of the US population, and Jews make up nearly 2% (5.7 million people). The largest proportion of Muslims in the US live in the Detroit-Dearborn area.

In Europe, the largest Muslim population is in Germany, at 4.8 million people, or 5.8% 0f the total population. France is 2nd in Europe, with 4.7 million Muslims, or 7.5% of the total population. The UK Muslim population stands at 3 million, or 4.8% of the country. Russia, not surprisingly given its vast territory spanning Europe and Asia, has around 20 million Muslims, or 15 % of the population.

The one point I cannot emphasize enough about Muslim populations in the West — and once again this shouldn’t need to be said — is that the overwhelming majority of Muslims in the West just want to live normal, healthy, productive lives. Like, no shit. Donald Trump may want you to think otherwise, but he’s completely wrong and is also a demagogue. However, I’m sticking to my promise not to discuss him, and really his complete odiousness doesn’t deserve another digital inch in this article, does it?

We’ll finish this look at ethnicity in America by examining the Asian and Asian-American population. The largest Asian groups in the US are, in order, Chinese, Filipino, Indian, Vietnamese, and Korean. We’ve mentioned China a lot in this piece, so no more is necessary. India  was a long-time colony of Great Britain, the Philippines was a Spanish and later US colony, and America fought brutal, anti-communist — but also imperial –wars in both Korea and Vietnam.

There. We’re done.

 

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THE US ECONOMY

Since the majority of our readers are likely American, let’s wrap up with a few key facts about the US economy and its demographics.

63% of the US population lives in cities, although these cities comprise only 3.5% of total US land area. However,  a large proportion of “cities” also contain vast suburban tracts. In a survey conducted by a major real estate website in conjunction with a data site, 26% of Americans said they live in urban areas, 53% said suburban, and 21% answered rural.

So, any way we slice it, roughly 80% of Americans live in cities or their suburbs, and only 20% live in rural areas. Something to keep in mind the next time you hear Sarah Palin describe rural America as the “real America.” It may be real, but it’s also a small and dwindling part of the country’s population.

Nevertheless, many of our rural brothers and sisters are indeed struggling, and we need to create new jobs and a better economy for them just as much as we focus on the cities.

Now, remember when we said the US GDP — its total economy — is $18 trillion? Well, in 2014 the total federal government budget was about $3.5 trillion, or around 20% of the total economy. This number is on the low end for industrialized countries. Austria’s government budget is 50% of GDP, Germany’s is 45%, and Japan’s is 42%.

There are many historical, cultural and other factors that explain why the size of government is bigger in Europe and Japan than America. One of them is that these countries have historically had a more community-oriented ethos, while America has been the epicenter of individual, free-market capitalism for the past 150 years. That means smaller government.

However, one thing is clear. Many of the leading industrialized countries spend much more on social and job programs for their citizens than America does, from infrastructure to healthcare to education.  As a consequence, some of them — but not all — have lower poverty rates than the US. The US poverty rate is in fact 15% of the total population.

Now to assess the poverty rate, we also need to look at US median household income. Median household income means if we lined up every household in America in a row, the one in the exact middle is the median household. And the income for this median household is about $55,000.

So an income of $55,000 for a household can be considered “middle class,” although lots of people would say that level of income doesn’t really enable anyone to live a middle-class life in America.

Back to the poverty rate. According to US government data, the official poverty level is defined as income of less than $24,000 for a family of four. So a 15% poverty rate means 45 million Americans live in households where total family income is under 24K. 

Wow. Chew on that one. Or maybe put it in your pipe and smoke it, because that’s the only way to mentally handle such an outrageous figure.

 

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MANDATORY US GOVERNMENT SPENDING, AKA ENTITLEMENTS

Returning to the federal government budget, of the $3.5 trillion total government budget, social security is the largest mandatory outlay, at $845 billion in 2014, or around 1/4 of the total government budget.

Medicare is next, at $600 billion, or 16% of government spending.

Medicaid spending was around $450 billion in 2014, but the federal government contributed about 60% of this total, with the states making up the rest.

So, federal Medicaid spending is actually around 8%, or 1/12th, of total federal government spending. The federal government is, however, covering about 90% of the current Medicaid expansion under Obamacare.

Maybe this is too much information. I can hear millions of readers silently picking up their smartphones to make the next Candy Crush move. Stay with me though, because this is important.

If we combine the latest spending data on Medicare and Medicaid, it comes to about $800 billion in 2014, or around 25% of the federal budget. Let’s also remember that one of the key features of Obamacare was extending Medicaid benefits — which is essentially health insurance for the very poor — to millions of new, previously uninsured Americans.

Unfortunately, as we all know, some of the more, shall we say, less enlightened US states, particularly those in the South, have declined to expand Medicaid benefits. Actually, let’s just call them what they are — retrograde, regressive, reactionary and anti-poor states.

To be clear, I’m really talking about the political leaders and the state governments in this region, because there are plenty of progressive people who reside in these states.

So, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid altogether — along with associated programs, such as S-CHIP, which is health insurance for poor children — comprise the majority of nondiscretionary spending, also known mandatory spending, or  entitlements. This means they are automatically renewed for funding each year. Nondiscretionary (mandatory) spending gets its name because it’s basically not at the government’s discretion, meaning the budget allocation is automatically made each year.

Unemployment insurance, food stamps and other social programs make up the other key pillar of nondiscretionary spending (entitlements), at $420 billion, which is 12% of the federal budget.

So only 12% of the federal budget  actually goes to cash and in-kind programs that support the unemployed, the working poor and the very poor. If you listened to Republicans tell it, the whole federal budget is for food stamps and welfare! Then again, why would we listen to Republicans.

I jest.

Sort of, but not really.

 

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US GOVERNMENT DISCRETIONARY SPENDING

Defense is the largest discretionary outlay, meaning its budget is at the government’s discretion and gets negotiated each year. Defense spending, including Veterans Affairs and Homeland Security, was the 2nd largest component of the overall federal government budget, at roughly $775 billion, which is more than 20% (1/5th) of total federal spending.

Wow, that’s a lot on defense. In fact, even if we take only the $600 billion of “regular” military spending and remove Homeland Security and veterans’ programs, the US still spends by FAR the most on defense of any nation on earth.  China is 2nd at $150 billion.

In fact, America spent more on defense in 2012 than the next ten countries combined.

So when we hear American politicians say the US military is “falling behind,” or that “American power is waning,” let’s remember that despite the very real threat of terrorism and other asymmetric types of warfare, the US faces no real, tangible, strategic or existential threats to its territory. President Obama has repeatedly — and correctly –stated this, but unfortunately threat perception matters more than reality.

Anyway, after Defense, all of the other executive departments of the government, which include mainly Cabinet agencies such as the Department of Education, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Labor Department, received $650 billion in 2010, or 17% of the federal budget.

So, after all these federal government budget numbers, let’s pause to ponder something. Hillary Clinton is officially proposing a “major” new infrastructure program to put Americans back to work in good-paying jobs. She  will do this by rebuilding declining roads, ports, bridges, highways, dams, metro transportation systems, and energy infrastructure.

Clinton wants to fund this “major” infrastructure program with $275 billion from the federal government over 5 years. So that’s, what, $55 billion per year? That’s about 1.5% of the total federal budget, or less than 4% of discretionary spending after taking into account entitlements. Does that sound “major” to you?

My point here is that we need the overall budget context in order to properly assess Clinton’s proposal. Because despite improving employment rates since the US economy bottomed out in 2009 following the subprime mortgage crisis, millions upon millions of Americans are still struggling to make ends meet.

Real wages — which means wages adjusted for inflation — have barely increased in 30 years, and more than 30 million Americans still have no health insurance.

[On health insurance, there’s no question that real progress has been made under Obamacare, but there’s more work to be done.]

In addition, as Bernie Sanders let us know repeatedly during his campaign, most of the new wealth and income created in America is going to the top 1%.

Indeed, the richest 1% of Americans own 40% of the nation’s wealth, and the bottom 80% of Americans combined have a paltry 7% of total American wealth.

Moreover, despite the economic recovery, millions of Americans have been unable to find work after the Great Recession and have simply stopped looking and dropped out of the workforce completely.

In fact, 1 in 6 American men aged 25-54 — about 10 million people of prime working age — have simply given up and dropped out of the labor force.  Furthermore, the number of people absent from the workforce has actually doubled since the 1970’s. So, clearly all is not well with the American economy, and we still have plenty more to do.

 

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 SO WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN? 

 

By now you may be experiencing dizziness and perhaps a lightheaded feeling after staring at all these demographics, country surveys, and global economic data. You may even be wondering, is there a point?

You bet there is.

Thomas Jefferson, one of America’s founding fathers, spoke often of the need for an informed citizenry in order for democracy to thrive. On a practical level, this means that numbers, data and national demographics are important because they provide essential context and allow people to make better-informed decisions about the world they live in.

For a real-world example, consider when a politician proposes a $17 million bridge-building project. What we need to ask is, how much really is that $17 million in the context of the overall budget? How many jobs will actually be created? Will there be negative environmental impacts? Answering these questions gives us a sense of the true impact of the project, as well as whether the proposal is ambitious, business-as-usual, or small potatoes.

The same goes for the population and economies of foreign countries and their economic, religious and racial demographics. The numbers are really only significant in comparison to other countries or the world as a whole.

Additionally, history, colonialism and global migration patterns help explain why certain countries have the ethnic or racial makeups they do. So it’s important to know this history.

So, the next time a politician or media commentator tries to tell you about a “significant” new proposal or political development, you can be better prepared to analyze the truth of their statement if you have a command of the data and the context.

And when someone says “Africa” is growing, you can point out that Africa is extremely diverse, and then inquire what countries they’re specifically referring to.  You can also ask whether they mean economic or population growth.

 

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Well, I think that about wraps it up for today. We’re done.

I hope you’ve enjoyed our trip around America and the world.

Stay cool.