Fishing, Homeless People, and Long-Term Service Needs by the Numbers

I. Fishing, Gone
126 - Pounds that a Chinook salmon, Alaska's state fish, can weigh.

$595M - Estimated value of Alaska's commercial salmon harvest in 2018.

$3.3B - Average annual export value of Alaska's seafood.

55F - Warmest water temperature a salmon can handle before its health starts to decline.

81.7F - Water temperature recorded in July in the Deshka River, a major salmon stream north of Anchorage.

1M - Number of pink salmon in the Shaktoolik River threatened by warming waters. (Source: The Nation, October 14, 2019.)

II. Homeless People
553K - Estimated number of homeless people in the United States on a given night in 2018.

37.8M - US households that pay more than 30 percent of their income toward housing.

24 - Percentage of homeless people who have physical or mental disabilities.

1.5 - Median wait in years for a Section 8 housing voucher.

6M - Substandard homes in the US.

2.1M - People living in public housing in the US.

1.5M - Vacant homes in the US. (Source: The Nation, October 21, 2019.)

III. Long-Term Service Needs
88M - Number of people in the United States over the age of 65 by the year 2050.

50% - Percentage of those who will have significant long-term service needs.

$266K - Projected average annual cost for those with significant long-term service needs.

$11.57 - Median hourly wage for a home care worker in the United States.

87% - Percentage of home care workers who are women -- more than half of them women of color. (Source: The Nation, October 28/November 4 , 2019.)

IV. A Wealth Tax
"The top 1 percent of Americans have more wealth than the bottom 95 percent, and that gulf is growing. Those in the top 0.1 percent have doubled their share of the country's wealth over the past four decades from about 10 to 20 percent of all wealth."

"According to tax law experts Lily Batchelder and David Kamin, the bottom 95  percent of income earners make 80 percent of their income from wages and salaries. In contrast, the top 1 percent earn just over half their income this way, and that number drops rapidly as you go up the ladder."

Probably the major objection lodged against the wealth tax is that it is too difficult to account for the wealth of rich people; however, fortunately, much wealth is in stocks and bonds, which are easily calculated. And the IRS can develop new evaluation techniques for other financial assets.

A 2% tax on wealth over $50 million affects only the top 0.1%. If it raises the full $2.75 trillion over 10 years, it would be enough to pay for 10 years of paid family leave; free public college; universal day care; and universal child allowance. (Sources: Mike Konczal, "Tax the Filthy Rich!" The Nation, October 28/November 4, 2019; Saez and Zucman; FAMILY ACT; American Family Act;  Estimates from Warren and Sanders campaigns, IWPR; and Moody's Analytics.)

V. Selective Marshals Detention Facilities (Per-Prisoner Payments)
Central Arizona - Rate: $120 --- Rio Grande - Rate: $90 --- Leavenworth - Rate: $100 --- Val Verde County - Rate: $60 --- East Hidalgo - Rate: $60.

Average daily population of Marshals detainees by facility: State/local - 36,000; Privately owned - 9,900; Federal - 9,700.

Marshals payments to detention facilities: CoreCivic - $310M; GEO Group - $56M; State/local - $747M.

Percentages of detention categories for U.S. Marshals: 1.) In fiscal year 2018, nearly 75% of all federal defendants were detained before trial. In 1988, nearly 30% were. 2.) 88% of Latino federal defendants were put in pretrial detention. 45% of whites were. 3.) 71% of noncitizen federal defendants were put in pretrial detention. 53% of citizen defendants were. 4.) More than 113,000 Marshals detainees were held on immigration charges, a 94% increase over 2017. (Source for V: Mother Jones, November/December 2019.)

ADDENDUMS:
*Trump says other countries, including Russia and China, should be responsible for protecting U.S. -allied Kurds.
*The State Department is promoting Mike Pompeo as a Christian leader.
*Mike Pompeo said that he never heard about military aid being conditioned on opening investigations, yet he was on the July 25 call.
*On October 20, Trump quoted "Mark Esperento, Secretary of Defense." as saying the ceasefire is holding up nicely." His name is Mark Esper.