Kevin Drum 🕸

For no particular reason, here's another health care chart. This one shows how much people spend each year personally on professional health care. It doesn't count aspirin or massages or stuff like that. It's the personal share of employer premiums plus out-of-pocket costs not covered by insurance. This is per-person; spending per family is higher ...continue reading "Raw data: Personal health care spending"

Donald Trump has been let off the hook for the full amount of the $454 million bond he was ordered to pay in his business fraud case. An appeals court cut it to $175 million. This is disappointing for those who enjoy watching Trump squirm, but it's probably reasonable. The court gave no reason for ...continue reading "Trump fine cut in half—for now"

When you see figures for K-12 teacher pay it's normally an average of all teachers, including those who have master's degrees and PhDs, or specialized skills such as ESL. But what about your garden variety fourth-grade teacher with a BA? They now make less than the average for all workers: The average base pay for ...continue reading "Raw data: Teacher pay in the US"

I don't really know anything about Candace Owens. I gather that she's a fairly standard issue MAGA lunatic, but she drew attention recently for parting ways with the Daily Wire following some arguably antisemitic comments. So what's made her so popular? Theory: The secret to Candace’s success is she exudes at a subliminal level deep ...continue reading "Every politician should be precisely as smart as me"

Ronna McDaniel spent the past seven years as chair of the Republican National Committee until Donald Trump fired her a few weeks ago. On Friday she was hired by NBC News on a reported $300,000 contract. Today she was interviewed on Meet the Press. The interview was scheduled weeks ago, before McDaniel was hired, but ...continue reading "Chuck Todd says the Trump-era RNC is a bunch of thugs and liars"

Did you know that health care inflation has been lower than overall inflation for the past decade? It has: This has kept Medicare costs nearly flat recently, though CMS projects this will change over the upcoming decade: The reason for the increase is not because medical inflation is expected to be high. In fact, CMS ...continue reading "Raw data: Real medical costs have been negative over the past decade"

A few months ago the LA Times ran a story about a serial squatter who rented an Airbnb guesthouse in Brentwood and then refused to move when her time was up. She ended up staying an additional 570 rent-free days. Response: Nothing. The Times tried again in February with a story about an abandoned office tower ...continue reading "Why are squatters suddenly everywhere?"

Obamacare has been around for ten years and it's been growing steadily more popular the entire time: Even a third of Republicans have a favorable view of Obamacare these days. To put this into perspective, the overall approval rate for Obamacare is 59%. That compares to about 80% for Social Security. And use of Obamacare ...continue reading "Raw data: Everyone loves Obamacare"

Here is the growth in the teen suicide rate since 2000: I'd like you to notice two things. First, the rise in teen suicides begins in 2007 and ends in 2017. Second, the overall growth in teen suicide through 2022 is the same as it is for adults. Neither of these things seems consistent with ...continue reading "Adult mental health is as bad as teen mental health"

It's too early etc. etc., but I thought everyone could use a little dose of good news this morning. Joe Biden has been picking up support lately: This is from the Economist, which updates its poll average weekly. The big caveat, of course, is that this doesn't say anything about the polls in swing states, ...continue reading "Joe Biden is now eking out a lead over Donald Trump"

CBP released border numbers on Friday and they were about the same as last month: Total encounters in February came to 190,000, of which 42,000 were migrants who made appointments for asylum through CBP's mobile app. The number apprehended crossing illegally was 141,000. About 29,000 immigrants gained temporary residence via the CHNV parole program in ...continue reading "Illegal immigration remains steady in February"

Here are my top ten traffic pet peeves. Some are fairly ordinary, some are probably sort of unique to me. Feel free to add your own in comments! If you're going to make a turn, put on your blinker. Don't worry about whether anyone is around. Just do it. Also: if you're turning right, move ...continue reading "My top ten traffic pet peeves"

Remember a few years ago when Joe Biden was vice president and visited Israel? In a deliberate move to embarrass him, a right-wing minister chose that exact moment to announce 1,600 new housing units for Jews in Palestinian East Jerusalem. Well, even in their darkest moment, when US support is more important than ever, they're ...continue reading "Israel just can’t stop insulting Americans"

This is nuts:

I was curious about some detail of the crime rate today so I pulled up data from the National Crime Victimization Survey. And I noticed something I never have before: NCVS reports that about 10% of all households are victims of property crime. We normally think of this as home burglary, but it turns out ...continue reading "Raw data: Burglary in the US"

Consistent data on teen use of social media is hard to get because nobody bothered surveying it until recently. However, here's how things seem to have gone over the past five years: Winners: YouTube, TikTok About even: Instagram, Snapchat Losers: Facebook, Twitter Here's what struck me about this: the more interactive a platform is, the ...continue reading "Is social media becoming less social?"

Generation Alpha (ca. 2010-2024) isn't even finished being born yet, but the LA Times informs me today that we already hate them anyway: “Everyone on the internet is really scared of Gen Alpha,” said Gen Z influencer Rivata Dutta, aka Riv, whose content is popular with alphas on TikTok. “They’re like, oh my God, Gen ...continue reading "The new worst generation ever is Gen Alpha"

A few days ago I was out for a walk and came across a woman taking a picture of a very photogenic cat. It was Charlie, who had jumped the fence and was roaming around several houses away. This alarmed Marian, who decided he needed a collar. So in today's picture you can see his ...continue reading "Friday Cat Blogging – 22 March 2024"

Oh my: Speaker Mike Johnson is about to drop to a one-vote majority, as retiring Rep. Mike Gallagher has decided he will exit the House as soon as next month, according to two people with knowledge of the matter. Gallagher's resignation will produce a 217-213 Republican majority, which means two defections on a vote would ...continue reading "Yet another Republican flees the madhouse"

Donald Trump's plan to take his worthless social media company public has been approved by investors. At the current valuation of the acquiring vehicle, his 80 million shares (give or take) will be worth north of $3 billion: But what's really going to happen when the newly merged company starts trading? It currently has 37 ...continue reading "Will Donald Trump really make $3 billion from his sham stock offering?"