$62 trillion lost and nobody’s searching. Are we sane?

I simply love it when a new term starts, so students can get a sense of the power of simple arithmetic. A sense that our great leaders have all been missing out on for all too many decades now. 

Houston, we have a problem:

320,000,000 people living in the US, give or take 15,000,000 uncounted undocumented immigrants

4,500,000 people per each year of age (as many 1 y.o. to as many 70 y.o., on average)

63,000,000 non-adults ( <= 18 y.o.) qualifying to go to a public school, and most actually going, minus all home schooled children 

60,000,000 people over 18 y.o. without a high school diploma or GED —> in 2017

45,000,000 people over 18 y.o. without a high school diploma or GED —> in 2012

$0 —> spent by US administration to address this issue in 2017

$0 —> spent by US administration to address this issue in 2012

0 —> minutes spent by US President addressing this issue 2009-2017

0 —> minutes spent by US President addressing this issue 2017-2018

4,204,800 minutes in eight years

525,600 minutes in one year 

$10,386 average pay difference between high school graduate and non high school graduate (2012 figures)

$623,160,000,000 average pay a year forfeited by US people without a high school diploma, not available to businesses for purchases, not taxed by US government as it was never earned

$6.2 trillion pay forfeited on average by US people over 10 years due to lack of high school diploma

$62 trillion in resulting profits (& GDP equiv.) missed, 10 y.

#perspective

Adrian S. Petrescu, Ph.D., J.D.

InnovationTrek

ASPetrescu@alumni.pitt.edu

ASPetrescu@InnovationTrek.org