[gweekly] PT1 Weekly Project Gutenberg Newsletter
Michael Hart
hart at pglaf.org
Wed Mar 9 10:01:50 PST 2005
GWeekly_March_09.txt
*The Project Gutenberg Weekly Newsletter For Wednesday, March 09, 2005 PT1*
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We have been invited to peruse the various eBook collections
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
[Search for "*eBook" or "*Intro". . .to jump to that section, etc.]
*eBook Milestones
*Introduction
*Hot Requests New Sites and Announcements
*Continuing Requests and Announcements
*Progress Report
*Distributed Proofreaders Collection Report
*Project Gutenberg Consortia Center Report
*Permanent Requests For Assistance:
*Donation Information
*Access To The Project Gutenberg Collections
*Mirror Site Information
*Instant Access To Our Latest eBooks
*Have We Given Away A Trillion Yet?
*Flashback
*Weekly eBook update:
This is now in PT2 of the Weekly Newsletter
Also collected in the Monthly Newsletter
Corrections in separate section
1 New From PG Australia [Australian, Canadian Copyright Etc.]
65 New Public Domain eBooks Under US Copyright
*Headline News from NewsScan and Edupage
*Information About the Project Gutenberg Mailing Lists
***
*eBook Milestones
15,678 eBooks As Of Today!!!
12,616 New eBooks Since The Start Of 2001
We Have Produced 722 eBooks in 2005
We Are ~57% of the Way from 10,000 to 20,000
We are ~14% of the Way from 15,000 to 20,000
4,232 to go to 20,000!!!
We have now averaged ~468 eBooks per year since July 4th, 1971
We Averaged About 339 eBooks Per Month In 2004
We Are Averaging About 321 books Per Month This Year
We Are Averaging About 80 eBooks Per Week This Year
66 This Week
It took ~32 years, from 1971 to 2003 to do our 1st 10,000 eBooks
It took ~32 months, from 2002 to 2005 for our last 10,000 eBooks
It took ~10 years from 1993 to 2003 to grow from 100 eBooks to 10,100
It took ~1.25 years from Oct. 2003 to Jan. 2005 from 10,000 to 15,000
*
***Introduction
[The Newsletter is now being sent in two sections, so you can directly
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This is Michael Hart's "Founder's Comments" section of the Newsletter
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***Continuing Requests New Sites and Announcements
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REQUEST FOR RUSSIAN TRANSLATOR
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we need them translated into English, also in a .doc file.
Thanks!!! Contact Jared Buck <JBuck814366460 at aol.com>
*
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***Progress Report, including Distributed Proofreaders
In the first 02.25 months of this year, we produced 722 new eBooks.
It took us from July 1971 to June 1996 to produce our first 722 eBooks!
That's 9 WEEKS as Compared to ~25 Years!
66 New eBooks This Week
76 New eBooks Last Week
66 New eBooks This Month [Mar]
321 Average Per Month in 2005
336 Average Per Month in 2004
355 Average Per Month in 2003
203 Average Per Month in 2002
103 Average Per Month in 2001
722 New eBooks in 2005
4049 New eBooks in 2004
4164 New eBooks in 2003
2441 New eBooks in 2002
1240 New eBooks in 2001
====
12616 New eBooks Since Start Of 2001
That's Only 50.25 Months!
15,678 Total Project Gutenberg eBooks
11,819 eBooks This Week Last Year
====
3,859 New eBooks In Last 12 Months
423 eBooks From Project Gutenberg of Australia
*
PROJECT GUTENBERG DISTRIBUTED PROOFREADERS UPDATE:
[No new numbers at this time, sorry]
Since completing its first eBook in March 2001, the Distributed
Proofreaders team has now contributed 6,247 eBooks to Project Gutenberg.
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*Project Gutenberg Consortia Center Report
Please note the addition of the Internet Archive
marked with <<< below.
PGCC's current eBook and eDocument Collections listings
of 18 collections. . .with this week's listing as:
Alex-Wire Tap Collection, 2,036 HTML eBook Files
Black Mask Collection, 12,000 HTML eBook Files
The Coradella Bookshelf Collection, 141 eBook Files
DjVu Collection, 272 PDF and DJVU eBook Files
eBooks at Adelaide Collection, 27,709 eBook Files
Himalayan Academy, 3,400 HTML eBook Files
Internet Archive ~30,000 eBook Files [In Progress] <<<
Literal Systems Collection, 68 MP3 eBook Files
Logos Group Collection, ~34,000 TXT eBook Files
Poet's Corner Poetry Collection, 6,700 Poetry Files
Project Gutenberg Collection, 15,035 eBook Files
PGCC Chinese eBook Collection ~300 eBook files <<< Note Name Change
Renaisscance Editions Collection, 561 HTML eBook Files
Swami Center Collection, 78 HTML eBook Files
Tony Kline Collection, 223 HTML eBook Files
Widger Library, 2,600 HTML eBook Files
CIA's Electronic Reading Room, 2,019 Reference Files
=======Grand Total Files=========~137,142 Total Files=====
Average Size of the Collections 8,067.18 Total Files
These eBooks are catalogued as per the instructions of
their donors: some are one file per book; some have a
file for each chapter; and some even have a file for a
single page or poem. . .or are overcounted for reasons
I have not mentioned. . .each of which could cause the
overcounting or duplication of numbers.
If we presume 2 out of 3 of these files are overcounts,
that leaves a unique book total of
~45,714 Unique eBooks
If we presume 3 out of 4 of these files are overcounts,
that leaves a unique book total of
~34,286 Unique eBooks
***
Today Is Day #63 of 2005
This Completes Week #9 and Month #02.25 [364 days]
301 Days/46 Weeks To Go [We get 52 Wednesdays this year]
4,232 Books To Go To #20,000
[Our production year begins/ends
1st Wednesday of the month/year]
80 Weekly Average in 2005
78 Weekly Average in 2004
79 Weekly Average in 2003
47 Weekly Average in 2002
24 Weekly Average in 2001
41 Only 41 Numbers Left On Our Reserved Numbers list
[Used to be well over 100]
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Statistical Review
In the 9 weeks of this year, we have produced 722 new eBooks.
It took us from 7/71 to 12/96 to produce our FIRST 722 eBooks!!!
That's 9 WEEKS as Compared to ~25 YEARS!!!
FLASHBACK!
Here's a sample of what books we were doing around eBook #722
Mon Year Title and Author [filename.ext] ###
A "C" Following The eText # Indicates That This eText Is Under Copyright
Dec 1996 A Young Girl's Diary, and Letter of Sigmund Freud [ygdsfxxx.xxx] 752
Dec 1996 Autocrat of Breakfast Table, Oliver Wendell Holmes[aofbtxxx.xxx] 751
Dec 1996 The High History of the Holy Graal, Author Unknown[hhohgxxx.xxx] 750
Dec 1996 Barlaam and Ioasaph, by St. John of Damascus [bioasxxx.xxx] 749
Dec 1996 The Brother of Daphne, by Dornford Yates [bdaphxxx.xxx] 748
Dec 1996 Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine, Gould/Pyle [aacomxxx.xxx] 747
Dec 1996 Burning Daylight, by Jack London [Jack London #5] [bdlitxxx.xxx] 746
Dec 1996 One Divided by Pi, To A Million Digits [math #17] [onepixxx.xxx] 745
Dec 1996 The Golden Mean, To A Million Digits [math #16] [gmeanxxx.xxx] 744
Dec 1996 Thoughts on Man, His Nature, etc, by Wm Godwin [tmnwgxxx.xxx] 743
Dec 1996 Editorials from the Hearst Newspapers by Brisbane [ehnabxxx.xxx] 742
Dec 1996 Thomas Hart Benton's Remarks to the Senate THB#1] [thbrsxxx.xxx] 741
Dec 1996 John C. Calhoun's Remarks in the Senate[Calhoun1#][jccrsxxx.xxx] 740
Dec 1996 Henry Clay's Remarks in House and Senate [Clay #1][hcrhsxxx.xxx] 739
Dec 1996 The Puzzle of Dickens's Last Plot by Andrew Lang#5[pldlpxxx.xxx] 738
Dec 1996 The Bobbsey Twins at School, by Laura Lee Hope #2?[tbtasxxx.xxx] 737
Nov 1996 Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Gibbon V6 [6dfrexxx.xxx] 736
. . .
Nov 1996 Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Gibbon V1 [1dfrexxx.xxx] 731
[Author: Edward Gibbon](See also eBooks 890-895 for HTML formatted editions.)
Nov 1996 Oliver Twist, by Charles Dickens [Dickens #13] [olivrxxx.xxx] 730
Nov 1996 Hackers/Computer Revolution Heroes, by Steven Levy[hckrsxxx.xxx] 729
Nov 1996 Emile Zola, by William Dean Howells [howells #5] [ezolaxxx.xxx] 728
Nov 1996 The Star-Spangled Banner, by John Carpenter [stspbxxx.xxx] 727
Nov 1996 Psychological Counter-Current by Howells [WDH #4] [pccmfxxx.xxx] 726
Nov 1996 Men of Invention and Industry by Samuel Smiles #2 [moiaixxx.xxx] 725
Nov 1996 The Man of Letters as a Man of Business [Howells3][tmlmbxxx.xxx] 724
Nov 1996 Henry James, Jr., by William Dean Howells [WDH#2][jimjrxxx.xxx] 723
Nov 1996 James Otis The Pre-Revolutionist, by J.C. Ridpath [jotisxxx.xxx] 722
Nov 1996 The Birds' Christmas Carol, Kate Douglas Wiggin #2[tbsccxxx.xxx] 721
Nov 1996 Almayer's Folly by Joseph Conrad [Conrad #12] [lmyerxxx.xxx] 720
Nov 1996 Plays of Wm.E. Henley and R.L. Stevenson [RLS #34][tpohsxxx.xxx] 719
Nov 1996 Tono Bungay, by H. G. Wells [H. G. Wells #6] [tonobxxx.xxx] 718
Nov 1996 Chita: A Memory of Last Island, by Lafcadio Hearn[chitaxxx.xxx] 717
Nov 1996 The Cruise of the Jasper B., by Don Marquis [#3] [jsprbxxx.xxx] 716
Nov 1996 Moon Endureth [Tales/Fancies], by John Buchan [#5][ndrthxxx.xxx] 715
Nov 1996 Bobbsey Twins in the Country, by Laura Lee Hope #1[tbticxxx.xxx] 714
Nov 1996 Memoirs of Popular Delusions V2, by Charles MacKay[2ppdlxxx.xxx] 713
Nov 1996 Thomas Jefferson, by Edward S. Ellis [tjeffxxx.xxx] 712
Nov 1996 Allan Quatermain, by H. Rider Haggard 711
*
Have We Given Away A Trillion Books/Dollars Yet???
With 15,678 eBooks online as of March 09, 2005 it now takes an average
of ~1% of the world gaining a nominal value of ~$.99 from each book.
1% of the world population is 64,433,715 x 15,678 x $.99 = $1+ trillion
With 15,678 eBooks online as of March 09, 2005 it now takes an average
of 100,000,000 readers gaining a nominal value of $0.64 from each book,
This "cost" is down from about $.85 when we had 11,819 eBooks a year ago.
100 million readers is only ~1.5% of the world's population!
At 15,678 eBooks in 33 Years and 08.25 Months We Averaged
~468 Per Year
39.0 Per Month
1.28 Per Day
At 722 eBooks Done In The 63 Days Of 2005 We Averaged
11.5 Per Day
80 Per Week
321 Per Month
The production statistics are calculated based on full weeks'
production; each production-week starts/ends Wednesday noon,
starts with the first Wednesday of January. January 5th was
the first Wednesday of 2005, and thus ended PG's production
year of 2004 and began the production year of 2005 at noon.
This year there will be 52 Wednesdays, thus no extra week.
***
*Headline News from NewsScan and Edupage
NewsScan is ceasing publication for at least a while,
we send our best wishes. [Preserving last article
we posted one extra week in tribute. . . .]
[PG Editor's Comments In Brackets]
[India will be following in the steps of China, and then will
come Indonesia, and "suddenly" half the world's population will
no longer be "Third World" or "developing countries." This is
obvious to anyone paying attention, but we will find that some
very important people, institutions and countries have been
keeping their heads in the sand.]
BRAIN DRAIN CHANGES DIRECTION
Whereas a few years ago the "brain drain" of Indian talent to the West
represented a $2 billion annual loss to India, the recent growth of the tech
industry in India is bringing home as many as 45% of the Indian
high-technology workers abroad. Some engineering schools are already
claiming a 50% decline in the number of students leaving the country, and V.
Kalyanaraman of the prestigious engineering school IIT in Madras says:
"Students are finding interesting and challenging jobs in India. The pay is
also better than it used to be, and they find that they can have a good
quality of life." (USA Today 24 Feb 2005)
<http://www.usatoday.com/tech/world/2005-02-24-indians-tech-wave_x.htm>
You have been reading excerpts from NewsScan: NewsScan Daily
is underwritten by RLG, a world-class organization making
significant and sustained contributions to the effective
management and appropriate use of information technology.
To subscribe or unsubscribe to the text, html, or handheld versions
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Html version: Send mail to NewsScan-html at NewsScan.com
NewsScan-To-Go: http://www.newsscan.com/handheld/current.html
*
>From Edupage
[The Legal System Ponders The Online World In Several Ways]
TEXAS BILL WOULD BENEFIT GRADUATES OF ONLINE LAW SCHOOLS
A bill working its way through the Texas legislature could give
graduates of online law schools more opportunities to practice law. The
American Bar Association (ABA) has so far refused to accredit online
law schools, saying that they do not train students adequately to
practice law. Although the ABA continues to refuse accreditation to
online law schools, the organization does accredit institutions that
offer some courses online. Currently in Texas, a graduate of an online
law school can only take the state's bar exam if he or she has
practiced law in another state for at least five years. The proposed
law would allow online graduates to take the Texas bar exam if they
simply had passed the bar in another state. A small number of other
states have similar statutes. California is currently the only state
that allows individuals to take the bar exam without having passed
another state's bar exam. The bill was prompted by the situation of
Julie Drenner, daughter of a state legislator, who graduated from Oak
Brook College of Law and Government in California, passed that state's
bar exam, and now wants to practice law in Texas.
Chronicle of Higher Education, 11 March 2005 (sub. req'd)
http://chronicle.com/prm/weekly/v51/i27/27a03501.htm
COURT PONDERS PROTECTION OF ONLINE JOURNALISTS
Two court cases involving Apple Computer have significant potential to
define the legal landscape for online journalists. In one case, Apple
has asked the court to allow it to compel the operators of three
industry Web sites to disclose the identities of confidential sources
who supplied the sites with confidential information about upcoming
Apple products. The judge in that case indicated he is leaning toward
finding for Apple. In the other case, Apple has accused Harvard student
Nick DePlume, operator of the Think Secret Web site, of trying to
persuade Apple employees to divulge company secrets. At issue in both
cases is the extent to which online journalists are afforded the
protection granted to traditional journalists for protecting their
sources. An attorney from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which is
fighting Apple in the first case, said that a ruling in Apple's favor
would "have a chilling effect on the use of confidential sources."
DePlume's attorney, Terry Gross, commented that had a major newspaper
published the stories that DePlume published on Think Secret, those
actions would simply have been deemed "good journalism" and no lawsuits
would have been filed.
New York Times, 5 March 2005 (registration req'd)
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/05/technology/05blogs.html
HACKER EXPOSES ADMISSIONS RECORDS
[9 1/2 Hours, Or 9 1/2 Weeks?]
A hacker who was able to access admissions records for dozens of
business schools posted instructions online for how applicants could
access those records. Among the universities whose records were exposed
were Harvard University, Stanford University, Duke University, Carnegie
Mellon University, and Dartmouth College. All of the affected schools
use an online application and notification system called ApplyYourself.
The vulnerability that allowed the unauthorized access has been fixed,
but during the nine hours in which the systems were exposed, several
hundred students attempted to find out if they had been accepted to
schools to which they applied. Final decisions and notifications of
acceptance are not expected for several more weeks. School officials
have been able to identify at least some of the applicants who gained
access to the records systems, and officials from some schools said
such activity would factor into the admission decision. Steve Nelson of
Harvard's MBA program said, "Hacking into a system in this manner is
unethical and also contrary to the behavior we expect of leaders we
aspire to develop." Even if a student saw a decision, said Nelson, that
decision isn't final until March 30.
San Jose Mercury News, 3 March 2005
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/11044063.htm
NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY UNVEILS ONLINE ARCHIVE
The New York Public Library this week unveiled an online archive of
275,000 images, available to the public for free. The project, called
the NYPL Digital Gallery, is supported by a $7 million grant from The
Atlantic Philanthropies and includes Civil War photographs, illuminated
manuscripts, Japanese prints, early American maps, and photographs of
New York City buildings and streetscapes. Paul LeClerc, president and
chief executive officer of the library, noted that while other
libraries are digitizing texts, few are putting materials such as
photographs and maps online. Images in the collection are either in the
public domain or are owned by the library and can be downloaded and
used for noncommercial purposes. The NYPL Digital Gallery project,
which is unrelated to the library's arrangement with Google to
digitize content, is expected to add another 225,000 images to its
database in the coming months.
Chronicle of Higher Education, 3 March 2005 (sub. req'd)
http://chronicle.com/prm/daily/2005/03/2005030307n.htm
LIBRARY EXPERIMENTS WITH IPODS FOR AUDIO BOOKS
[The Fact That The iPod Shuffle Actually "Shuffles" The Playing
Order Of The MP3s Might Be A Potential Problem Here, Unless The
Library Puts Only A Single MP3 File On Each iPod]
The South Huntington Public Library on Long Island, New York, has begun
a program of loaning iPod shuffles to library patrons to listen to
audio books. Ken Weil, director of the library, said that the
introduction of Apple's newest iPod device, the shuffle, made the
program economically viable. "It's the right product with the right
price," he said. Although currently the selection of books available in
MP3 format is relatively limited, Joe Latini, assistant director of the
library, said patrons can request new titles to be added. He also noted
that because books in MP3 format cost just $15 to $25, compared to
about $75 for books on CD, the savings will likely pay for the iPod
devices over time. The library has ten of the devices available for
checkout, four of which store 512 megabytes while the other six hold up
to 1 gigabyte.
Wired News, 3 March 2005
http://www.wired.com/news/mac/0,2125,66756,00.html
[More Educational Possibilities for iPods]
IPODS DEBUT AT DREXEL
Students entering the School of Education at Drexel University this
fall will receive iPods as part of a program to explore and evaluate
the educational potential of the devices. Duke University launched a
similar program last fall, distributing iPods to all 1,650 of its
incoming freshmen. The program at Drexel, however, is much smaller in
scope, with about 30 students expected to enter the School of Education
in the fall. Some have criticized such programs as gimmicks that are
unlikely to produce valuable educational results, and officials
involved in the programs acknowledge the risk that students will simply
use the devices to listen to music. Drexel officials said part of the
university's program is to solicit feedback from students about how
the devices could be put to good use educationally. Students will
receive microphones to record interviews and other meetings, and the
university will request that the students use the iPods to create
"audio Web logs" during a required semester of off-campus work. Drexel
will also experiment with podcasting, a process in which iPod owners
can download audio files, such as news announcements or lectures from
professors, and listen to them at their convenience.
Chronicle of Higher Education, 2 March 2005
http://chronicle.com/free/2005/03/2005030203n.htm
RESEARCHERS OFFER PLANET NAMING RIGHTS
Researchers hoping to locate unknown planets outside the solar system
have launched a project to encourage computer users to donate unused
processing power on their computers to analyze telescope data.
Participants in the PlanetQuest Collaboratory whose computers discern
variations in the data that indicate the existence of a planet will be
allowed to name it. The project is led by David Gutelius, visiting
scholar at Stanford University, and Laurance Doyle, an astrophysicist
with the SETI Institute in California. The PlanetQuest project is not
unlike the SETI at Home project, sponsored by the University of California
at Berkeley, which uses donated computing power to search for
extraterrestrial intelligence. Gutelius and Doyle hope to raise enough
money for their project to build as many as 10 telescopes around the
world dedicated to searching for unknown planets. Gutelius said
start-up costs could reach $20 million, with annual operating costs
running about $10 million, money he hopes can be raised from private
investors as well as from subscriptions to premium content and revenue
from ads on the site.
Wired News, 2 March 2005
EDUCAUSE LAUNCHES BLOG SERVICE
EDUCAUSE has launched the EDUCAUSE Community Blog Service, a pilot
project to create a new, vibrant medium for professional information
sharing in the higher education IT community. The blogs represent a
growing number of voices in this community, and postings span a wide
range of topics, including cybersecurity, teaching and learning, and
open source software. Postings are categorized by taxonomy term and by
blogger and can be browsed on the EDUCAUSE Web site or received through
an RSS syndicated feed.
EDUCAUSE, 2 March 2005
http://www.educause.edu/blogs/
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*HEADLINE NEWS AVOIDED BY MOST OF THE MAJOR U.S. MEDIA
NBC BLAMES AMERICAN OFFICIALS FOR IRAQ-ASSASSINATION GOOF
NBC News blamed United States officials for a mistakenly reporting
the assassination of the chief judge overseeing the trial of Saddam Hussein.
An NBC spokeswoman said: "We got the information from multiple high-level
sources who confirmed the story's accuracy," and "It was wrong, and we
corrected it immediately."
Even those who ARE willing to report this story refuse to mention
that NBC showed the judge's picture which was previous banned or
only presented in the now popular digital blur. In addition,
no these articles are not mentioning his name, which is obviously
still on many sites that originally reported the NBC story.
*STRANGE QUOTE OF THE WEEK
"A 20 year old worker has a 30% chance of being disabled
before retirement." U. S. Social Security Information
*PREDICTIONS OF THE WEEK
Increases oil importation by China and India will drive
price up even further, as they buy all the additional oil
OPEC is putting on the market.
*ODD STATISTICS OF THE WEEK
Before the year 2000, only about half the world population
had ever made a phone call. Now cell phones are reaching
the rural areas of Asia and Africa.
About one billion cell phones have been sold in 18 months.
*
"If we could shrink the earth's population to a village of precisely
100 people, with all the existing human ratios remaining the same,
it would look something like the following. There would be:
57 Asians
21 Europeans
14 from the Western Hemisphere, both north and south
8 Africans
52 would be female
48 would be male
70 would be non-white
30 would be white
70 would be non-Christian
30 would be Christian
6 people would possess 59% of the entire world's wealth
and all 6 would be from the United States
80 would live in substandard housing
70 would be unable to read
50 would suffer from malnutrition
1 would be near death; 1 would be near birth
1 (yes, only 1) would have a college education
1 would own a computer
I would like to bring some of these figures more up to date,
as obviously if only 1% of 6 billion people owned a computer
then there would be only 60 million people in the world who
owned a computer, yet we hear that 3/4 + of the United States
households have computers, out of over 100 million households.
Thus obviously that is over 1% of the world population, just in
the United States.
I just called our local reference librarian and got the number
of US households from the 2004-5 U.S. Statistical Abstract at:
111,278,000 as per data from 2003 U.S Census Bureau reports.
If we presume the saturation level of U.S. computer households
is now around 6/7, or 86%, that is a total of 95.4 million,
and that's counting just one computer per household, and not
counting households with more than one, schools, businesses, etc.
I also found some figures that might challenge the literacy rate
given above, and would like some help researching these and other
such figures, if anyone is interested.
BTW, while I was doing this research, I came across a statistic
that said only 10% of the world's population is 60+ years old.
This means that basically 90% of the world's population would
never benefit from Social Security, even if the wealthy nations
offered it to them free of charge. Then I realized that the US
population has the same kind of age disparity, in which the rich
live so much longer than the poor, the whites live so much longer
than the non-whites. Thus Social Security is paid by all, but is
distributed more to the upper class whites, not just because they
can receive more per year, but because they will live more years
to receive Social Security. The average poor non-white may never
receive a dime of Social Security, no matter how much they pay in.
***
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