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Archive for the ‘retirement’ Category

Top political books of 2011 – The Arena | POLITICO.COM

www.politico.com11/24/11

… of obesity, incarceration, homicide, mental illness, drug addiction, infant mortality, teenage pregnancy, illiteracy, and low rates of social mobility, trust and life expectancy. The U.S., tragically, has some of the highest rates of …

Obesity, Drug Abuse Biggest Problems in US Youth

www.inquisitr.com8/16/11

“The perception of drug abuse as a big problem matches recent national data showing increasing use of marijuana and other drugs by US teens. Meanwhile, although obesity remains atop the list of child health concerns for …

I just came across the following map and stats, and whilst I found the whole thing interesting, I wondered if it was really accurate.

So I just spent a couple of hours checking out the sources, and as far as I could see, everything is 100% accurate.

The majority of the stats were taken from either:

America’s Health Rankings

or The US Census Bureau

And if they weren’t, then an alternative source is quoted.

So Here They Are

1. Alabama: highest rate of stroke (3.8 percent) (tied with Oklahoma).

2. Alaska: highest suicide rate (23.6 suicides per 100,000 people in 2004).

3. Arizona: highest rate of alcoholism.

4. Arkansas: worst average credit score (636) – TalkBusiness

5. California: most air pollution (15.2 micrograms per cubic meter).

6. Colorado: highest rate of cocaine use per capita (3.9 percent total population).

7. Connecticut: highest rate of breast cancer – State Health Facts

8. Delaware: highest abortion rate (27 per 1,000 women aged 15 to 44).

9. Florida: highest rate of identity theft (122.3 reports per 100,000 people).

10. Georgia: sickly based on highest rate of influenza.

11. Hawaii –highest cost of living (tied with California) CNBC States With The Highest Cost Of Living

12. Idaho – lowest level of Congressional clout – NewWest

13. Illinois: highest rate of robbery (284.7 incidences per 100,000 people).

14. Indiana: rated the most environmentally unfriendly by NMI solutions – Environmental Leader

15. Iowa: highest percentage of people age 85 and older (1.8 percent) (tied with three other states) StateMaster

16. Kansas: poorest health based on highest average number of limited activity days per month (3.5 days) StateMaster

17. Kentucky: most cancer deaths (227 per 100,000 people), and Kentucky also has the highest rate of tobacco smokers – 25.6 percent).

18. Louisiana: highest rate of gonorrhea (264.4 reported cases per 100,000 people) StateMaster

19. Maine: dumbest state claim based on lowest average SAT score (1389) Commonwealth Foundation

20. Maryland: highest rate of AIDS diagnosis (27.6 people per 100,000 people) Avert.org

21. Massachusetts: worst drivers claim based on highest rate of auto accidents The Auto Channel

22. Michigan: highest unemployment rate (13.6 percent).

23. Minnesota: highest number of reported tornadoes (123 in 2010) Woodbury kstp

24. Mississippi: highest rate of obesity (35.3 percent of total population).

* Mississippi ranks last in the most number of categories.

Including the highest rate of child poverty (31.9 percent), highest rate of infant mortality (10.3 percent).

Lowest median household income ($35,078).

Highest teen birth rate (71.9 per 1,000 women aged 15 to 19).

And highest overall rate of STDs (Sexually Transmitted Diseases).

25. Missouri: highest rate of bankruptcy (700 out of every 100,000 people) BSC Alliance

26. Montana: highest rate of drunk driving deaths (1.12 deaths per 100 million miles driven) HelenAir

27. Nebraska: highest rate of women murdered annually.

28. Nevada: highest rate violent crime (702.2 offenses per 100,000 people)and Nevada also has the highest rate of foreclosure (one in 99 houses).

29. New Hampshire: highest rate of corporate taxes New Hampshire Watchdog

: the link went dead. So what’s NH bottom at? Email me!

30. New Jersey: highest rate of citizen taxation (11.8 percent) The Retirement Living Information Center

31. New Mexico: antisocial claim based on lowest ranking in social heath policies Los Alimos Study Group

32. New York: longest average daily commute (30.6 minutes) StateMaster

33. North Carolina: lowest average teacher salary Facing South

34. North Dakota: ranked last in ugliest residents report as chosen by The Daily Beast

35. Ohio: nerdiest state claim based on highest number of library visits per capita (6.9) StateMaster

36. Oklahoma: highest rate of female incarceration.

37. Oregon: highest rate of long-term homeless people.

38. Pennsylvania: highest rate of arson deaths (55.56 annually) StateMaster

39. Rhode Island: highest rate of illicit drug use (12.5 percent of population) EconomicMix

40. South Carolina: highest percentage of mobile homes (18.8 percent) StateMaster

41. South Dakota: highest rate of forcible rape 76.5 per 100,000.

42. Tennessee: chosen most corrupt state by The Daily Beast

43. Texas: lowest high school graduation rate (78.3 percent) Statemaster

44. Utah: highest rate of of on-line porn subscriptions Desert News

45. Vermont: infertility claim based on lowest birth rate of any state (10.6 births per 1,000) (tied with Maine) StateMaster

46. Virginia: highest number of alcohol-related motorcycle deaths The Virginia Biker

47. Washington: most cases of bestiality (4 reported in 2010) Pet-Abuse

48. West Virginia: highest rate of heart attack (6.5 percent of population).

49. Wisconsin: highest rate of binge drinking (23.2 percent of population).

50. Wyoming: highest rate of deadly car crashes (24.6 deaths per 100,000) AutoInsuranceQuotealer

The bottom line is, if you do find any errors then please let me know and I’ll make the updates.

Obama's vision splits small businesses | Entrepreneurial

blogs.reuters.com1/25/12

What do small businesses make of Obama's State of the Union address and promises for job growth and tax reform?

polecat news and views: Obama's Vision for a Spartan America

donpolson.blogspot.com2/4/12

Obama's Vision for a Spartan America. BY JONAH GOLDBERG. President Obama's State of the Union address was disgusting. The president began with a moving tribute to the armed forces and their accomplishments. But as …

Can America Afford Obama's Vision?

President Obama’s vision of what America ought to look like in the future, would hugely raise government spending on health care, energy and education, and taxpayers would have to foot the bill for a larger, more intrusive government.

His $3.6 trillion debt proposal isn’t simply a bunch of numbers and tables however, but it’s the basis of his underlying philosophy. He believes that throwing staggering amounts of money at schools, hospitals and environmentally friendly industries, will also lay the foundation for the next economic boom.

Do his figures add up?

The Budget Office forecast is for a 10-year cumulative deficit of $9.3 trillion which is $2.3 trillion higher than the administration’s estimate, and it predicts that the government would spend an average of 23.7% of its GDP yearly, while only receiving 18.4% of GDP in revenue during the same period.

What would that mean?

It would mean yearly federal deficits averaging 5.3% of GDP and a budget gap of about $1.2 trillion by the year 2019.

What does Obama have to say on the subject?

"We cannot and will not sustain deficits like these without end."

It is not surprising then, that many Conservatives who envision a totally different society are in growing opposition to Obama’s plans. They mostly envisage prosperous and thrifty two-parent families who pay for their own health and auto insurance, and an economy in which a middle-class family’s tax burden is so low that there is money left over to save for education and retirement.

The Republicans are not the only ones that are showing mounting concern however, and Senator Kent Conrad, who is chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, recently expressed his skepticism about making the president’s "Making Work Pay" tax break, a permanent one.

Obama’s proposed tax plan would phase out at family incomes of $190,000 or more and carry a 10-year cost of $537 billion, and he has also requested an additional minimum of $234 billion in individual, and $100 billion in business-breaks on top of the initial one.

Obama’s highly ambitious agenda, which includes healthcare expansion, new spending on clean energy and education, and a cap-and-trade system (a cap and trade system is a market-based approach to controlling pollution that allows corporations or national governments to trade emissions allowances under an overall cap, or limit, on those emissions. to combat global warming) has also caused many others to express their concerns too.

U.S. Representative Richard Neal, Democrat of Massachusetts, who is a longtime member of the House Ways and Means Committee said, "I think the reality is going to settle in that we are going to have to pull back on something".

James Horney, who is the director of federal fiscal policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities said, "Over the longer term, the federal government is going to need more revenue than Obama is proposing and anybody who has looked at the problem and doesn’t have ideological blinders on reaches that conclusion".

Will taxes have to go up if Obama’s plans are passed?

Robert Reischauer, former director of the Congressional Budget Office says, "The unvarnished truth is that as we move forward over the next five to 10 years, we are going to have to raise taxes across the board or significantly cut back programs which affect the middle class and the lower class", and Bob Bixby, who is executive director of the Concord Coalition said, "One of the mistakes Obama is making is saying nobody under $250,000 is going to be affected. The deficit is just too big, and you can’t get it all from families earning more than $250,000. Taxes are going to have to go up at some point!.