There were recent headlines about Somali fraud in the charitable systems in Minnesota… While all fraud in the millions of dollars is something we should investigate, track down, and denounce, the recent collective punishment might be out of proportion…
Phil and Skye note the general trend of casting blaming certain groups, in last week’s podcast above, finding cases of criminality and applying them generally to a group. Now that’s not something unique to the political left or right, but one thing they don’t mention in the podcast is the magnitude of the fraud.
According to a local Minnesota paper, Minnesota Reformer, “70 people have been charged in the scheme to bilk the federal government of more than $250 million meant to feed hungry children during the pandemic. The Reformer reported that almost half the defendants who were charged in the federal meals program had other businesses that received funds from the state.“Yikes, 250M/70, that is at least 3.5 million in fraud per person. He goes on to explain some of the potential reasons for this, along with the perceived racism that may have gone along with looking the other way.
Naturally a certain brand of cable-news reporting was eating this up…
On the other hand, one well known politician’s family has reportedly been enriched to the tune of $3 billion dollars owing to his political success. While there may not be anything illegal about making money while president, generally previous presidencies have divested from business interests while in office. Many have frowned at the prospect of the private dinner with the meme coin owners and apparent pay to play in the American economy! There was also the market manipulation, in which trillions were wiped off the market before the president posted to his friends and followers, that this is a “GREAT TIME TO BUY” before tariff policy change. This looks suspiciously like the largest reverse stock pump and dump, in stock market history, which would likely be illegal…
This is not a political blog, and I know you come here for math, not politics. Let me be clear – If Democrats are enabling, or looking the other way when some favored groups seem to be doing some fraud, they should be held accountable. Republicans that are looking the other way when/if their favorite people are enriched fraudulently, should also be held accountable.
The interesting mathematical difference here is that these news reports above are seldom on the same news channels, due to political polarization, and they also are not comparing the order of magnitude:
1 Billion dollars = 1000 million dollars.
Suppose someone broke in and stole a laptop worth $2000 or more, or gained it by other fraudulent means.
Suppose someone else broke in to a store and stole a few candy bars or items, worth, $3.50…
That is the order of magnitude of difference between millions and billions. Millions, Billions, and trillions are orders of magnitude larger….
| million | 1000000 |
| billion | 1000000000 |
| trillion | 1000000000000 |
| quadrillion | 1000000000000000 |
| quintillion | 1000000000000000000 |