Oooo, this is a good one. Remember the boasts about prescription drug prices going down more than 100%? Well, it’s baaaack, and making these two yahoos even bigger idiots. Neither one of them has any clue about percentages, and it shows. They need some help with this. They really do. And we have one killing HHS, and the other killing the country. This does not give us warm, fuzzy feelings of confidence. I appreciate Raw Story:
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. attempted to defend President Donald Trump’s false claim that he had lowered drug prices by more than 500%. During a Thursday event in the Oval Office, Kennedy recalled that Democrats had asked him to explain why the president had repeatedly suggested that he reduce drug prices by up to 1,000%.
“One of the Democratic senators who was questioning me during a hearing,” Kennedy said. “And she was ridiculing President Trump for his math. And she was saying, it’s mathematically impossible to have a drug drop by 600% cost, which he had claimed.”
Oh, yes. Percentages are definitely their own thing. Just ask me. One of my readers had to correct me about a percentage. But anyone can tell the math doesn’t work for those high percentages. His claims don’t make any sense. And Trump wonders why he is ridiculed. He isn’t that smart anyhow, and neither is RFK Jr. We get to stomp on 2 for the price of 1!
“And I said, well, if the drug was $100 and it raised the price to $600, that would be a 600% rise,” he continued. “Well, if it drops from 600 to 100, that’s a 600% savings.” Trump agreed: “You’re right, I took a lot of heat. It’s, say, 500, 600.
But we also say sometimes 50%, 60%, different kind of calculation. 70, 80, and 90%. And people understand that better. But there are two ways of calculating it.” “It’s also 500, 600, 700, depending on the way you want to look at it,” he added. “So, the way you word the calculation, it’s either one.”
*snort* nice try, kiddies. It still doesn’t work like that. The percentages can’t be more than 100. They just can’t. Two ways of saying it are a farce. There is no such thing as 600% change, no matter how it’s said. And I just confused myself. I thought there could be a 600% increase, but still not a 600% decrease. I need to stay away from percentages, as in now.
Trump and Kennedy were met with scorn online for not understanding how math works. “These mind numbingly stupid imbecile sycophants are now trying to invent new math that doesn’t exist in order to not correct the cult leader’s completely brain damaged idiocy. Its truly unbelievable how dumb this is, even for these fools,” political commentary account Spiro’s Ghost argued
“I give up, this isn’t even worth joking about anymore,” commenter Daractenus lamented. //// “This is just Idiocracy-level mathematical idiocy to claim that a price dropping from $600 to $100 is a ‘600% savings.’ Yet Trump believes this and RFK Jr. is pushing it,” one mathematician pointed out. “This answer would earn an ‘F’ in high school math.”
“It was pretty inevitable that conservatives would move from science denial to math denial,” Mike Drucker observed. //// “How can anyone take these morons seriously?” Peter Chalcraft asked. “They can’t even understand simple math, so how can you expect them to understand complex economics and geopolitics.” //// “We are led by drooling morons,” another commenter complained.
I know that’s a lot, but I felt you would appreciate all of the ones quoted. They said it all for us. The drooling morons is my favorite quote. Everyone except Trump and RFK Jr. knows the math. But, it goes right along with all the other stupid people in the Trump government. No wonder we’re in such a bad position. They can’t even understand basic math. Hegseth can’t either. Okay, Hegseth is in his own world, so we’ll set that aside here. Lawd have mercy. Are we going to have a country left after this?
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Yeah. Percentages are a very tricky thing. A lot of times, you’ll hear someone bragging about “giving 110%” which is, of course, a physical impossibility but almost everyone knows it’s simple hyperbole.
That said (or, written, to be accurate), percentages CAN increase by more than 100% though it’s very rare to see that happen in the short term. But, here’s how it can happen. Take the price of comic books. In 1960, the average new comic book cost 10¢. Today, however, you’re looking at a low-end of $3.99 (DC Comics and Image Comics both have titles with a “suggested retail price” of $3.99; however, many other comics cost $4.99 at both companies as well as other major publishers like Dark Horse and Marvel). Now, the increase in price over these many decades was a fairly slow increase. In the early 1960s, the price had increased to just 12¢–a (very simple) 20% increase (20% of 10¢ is 2¢). By the early 1970s, the price increased to 15¢–another 20% increase (15-12=3, 3/15 = 1/5 or, in percentages, 20%). Inflation took a major toll on the comics industry through the 1970s and by 1980, the average comic book was running 35-40¢ which meant a LARGE increase (between 133% and 167%–the former would be a 20¢ increase, the latter a 25¢ increase). Now, compared to 1960–just 20 years earlier–the 40¢ price would mean the price of comics had jumped a whopping 300%! By the year 2000, the average comic was pushing $2 which meant an overall increase of 400% (!) in just 20 years–and in 40 years, the increase was 1,900% (!). Today, again, the low-end price is pushing $4 which means, over the past 25 years, the average price has increased by around 100%–but compared to 1960? We’re talking around 3,900% (!).
BUT . . . . .
*IF* someone decided to sell a brand-new comic for just 10¢, that price would NOT be a decrease of 3.900% but, rather, just a mere 97.5% decrease (and the company and the creative team would be losing massive amounts of money in the process; several companies have done what are essentially “loss leaders” in producing full-length promotional books–typically in connection with an “event” or to spotlight a new series the company has a great deal of faith in–but none are stupid enough to do such books as “regular” series).
Joseph, this was fantastic! Great example! Makes me miss my comics…..