Putting "News" in Context

Here's another excellent example of how Dean Baker calls media to task for throwing out "scare" numbers without any context.

How Big Is $239 Billion Over 10 Years?

Readers might be asking that question when the NYT told them that CBO's analysis implied that the House's health care bill would raise the deficit by that amount. It is equal to about 0.13 percent of projected GDP over this period.

By comparison, the Iraq War at its peak cost more than 1.0 percent of GDP. Put in per capita terms, it is a bit less than $80 a year. This would have been useful context for this article.

It is obvious that big media is trying to "sell" the idea that healthcare reform in the US is "too expensive". So they throw out big numbers without context that sound scary to the average person. So people become convinced that change is "not possible".

The joke is that the US spends roughly twice as much on healthcare as any other developed country and has worse outcomes (shorter longivity, more people denied necessary care, etc.). If the US fixed its healthcare system, they could improve it while cutting costs in half. A lot of people would be mad: shareholders in HMOs, insurance companies, etc. Doctors in the US would take a "haircut" as their incomes fell from their astronomical sizes to something smaller but still huge by comparison to ordinary workers. There are a lot of "interested parties" that are digging in for trench warfare to prevent "change" in the US.