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Facts, figures and fools with money
(May 2, 2010) - What diesel fuel is to tractors facts are to journalists. Diesel is expensive; facts, for the most part, are free. Moreover, facts are all over.
So if they're just about everywhere and usually free, why aren't more facts used? Oftentimes politics takes the upper hand. In fact, if the facts cannot be bent to support the political side of an argument then most are dumped in favor of ideology.
For example, while demagogues demonize illegal immigrants and political leaders use the usually poor, mostly hardworking and, yes, here-illegally group as election fodder, few admit the obvious truth: "That America's 13 million-plus illegal immigrants are here to stay," according to recently released study by the non-partisan, non-profit, independent think tank U.S. Strategic Perspective Institute.
Why? Simple math, says the institute. First, it's logistically impossible to gather 13 million people-the populations of Los Angeles and New York City combined or Illinois alone-in one place to house and feed while arranging deportation.
If such an exodus could be organized, according to the study, it would require "166,666 buses, more than 13 billion gallons of fuel and about 48 million pounds of food (around 195 million meals) simply to transport them to the nearest border."