Regardless of the outcome of the 2008 election, I have decided that the most constructive thing I can do is make both a quantitative and qualitative analysis of my life and then monitor the status of these particular metrics throughout the next four years.
Marital Status: Single
Financial Metrics (Expenses/Debt) (http://www.wesabe.com):
- School Loans – ($23,776.79)
- Car Loan – ($8,615.00)
- Credit Cards – ($14,813.76)
- Electricity – ($78.48)/month (avg.)
- Cell Phone – ($85.00)/month (avg.)
- Rent – ($590.00)/month (avg.)
- Medical – ($235.00)/month (avg.)
- Fuel – ($110.00)/month (avg.)
- Entertainment – ($78.00)/month (avg.)
- Food – ($550.00)/month (avg.)
- Federal Tax Paid – ($4,572.55) (2007)
- Social Security Paid – ($2,465.64) (2007)
- Medicare Paid – ($576.65) (2007)
- State Tax Paid – ($2,250.00) (2007)
Financial Metrics (Revenue/Assets):
- Salary – $2,150.00/month (avg.)
- Car – $8,240.00 (http://www.kbb.com)
- Computers – $2,000.00
- Electronics – $2,100.00
- Literature – $500.00
- Media – $500.00
- Clothing – $700.00
- Misc. – $1,000.00
Policy Metrics (some from http://www.publicagenda.org):
- Infanticide is still morally reprehensible and illegal
- There are restrictions on abortions
- 16 of every 1000 women has an abortion
- 2/3rds of states only financially support abortions in the case of rape, incest, or the mother’s life is endangered
- 75% of abortions are for girls/women ages 15 to 30
- Legal immigration is around 1,150,000
- 30.8% of immigrants (citizens and non-citizens) are at poverty level
- Nearly 75% of legal immigrants are either not working outside the home or have unknown occupational status
- Around 15% of Americans are without health insurance
- Military spending is at about 20% of total expenditures
- U.S. spending on international assistance is just under 1% of total expenditures
- U.S. trade deficit is around $700,000,000.00
- Unemployment is just above 6% (seasonally adjusted; from http://www.bls.gov/CPS/)
- Women’s wages are around 70% or men’s
- Median household income is around $50,000.00
- Inflation is just under 5% (from http://inflationdata.com)
- Marriage is still mostly defined as being between a man and woman
- Pastors and radio talk show hosts still have freedom to speak their mind
- Spending per public school pupil is somewhere around $12,000
- Nearly 30% of people 25 years and over have completed four or more years of college
- Enrollment in public schools is over 91%
- Violent Crime Rate is at about 500 incidents per 100,000 people
- 1.2% of expenditures is dedicated to natural resources and the environment
- Oil is around $65 a barrel
- DJIA – $8375.45 (1/28/2009)
There are some details. I might add more, but these are probably good marks of the state of my world.