ffwhite | statistics, what they say and do not say

The United States Census Bureau tracks many things. Some of them would seem bizarre if not for their capacity to instruct us on what happens in our great society. Here are a few numbers I was able to find on their website:

2008, more than 2.3 million incarcerated
2007, more than 1.4 million military
2005, 32637 suicides
2009, 13756 homicides
2000, 2.1 million cases of domestic violence

This tells us is that a relatively small section of people experience these unsavory things in the span of a year. It does not tell us the cumulative numbers, so that we might know how many we have accumulated in 10 years, or in 50, or in a human lifetime. It also does not track anything that is not processed through official channels. There are no mercenaries or defense contractors in the military numbers. The homicides not proven in court become accidental deaths.

I conclude from this that we are blessed with a lower rate, per capita, of societal ills than in other eras. However, the undocumented items and our increased life-spans suggest that those exposed to these things in their lives might be as many as in other times. It is still a minority, but also that which we strive to change.

F. F. White