Progress Daily

Since the mid-1980s, workers at the bottom of the wage scale have seen their incomes fall relative to those at the top. However, a recent research paper (”Inequality and Prices.” Pdf file here), by Christian Broda and John Romalis, argues that standard measures of inequality do not reflect differences in the inflation rates faced by the rich and the poor. For most of the past three decades, the price of non-durable goods (on which the poor spend relatively more) has been falling relative to the price of the services (investment advice, personal care, domestic help, etc) that the rich spend more of their money on.

The authors constructed price indices for 12 income groups, using official figures and detailed private information on the spending habits of different households. This data set, created by shoppers themselves using in-store scanners, records the type and prices of goods bought by various income groups between 1994 and 2005.

The share of non-durable spending for the very poorest households was 12 percentage points higher than for the richest.

One standard measure compares the income of a household just below the top 10% of earners with one just above the bottom 10%. The richer household earned 10.6 times more than the poorer one in 1994; that multiple rose to 11.2 in 2005. The researchers calculate that around two-thirds of this increase was offset by the poor’s lower inflation rate. (The researchers found a similar result when they extend their analysis back to 1984.) Also, the range of goods consumed by poor households increased by far more than for rich households. If the gain in variety is quantified & expressed as an addition to real income, the remaining increase in inequality vanishes.

The authors matched their figures on non-durable spending with equally detailed import data, and calculated that imports from China alone offset more than a quarter of the measured rise in income inequality since 1994.

“Cheap and cheerful,” The Economist

According to a 2007 Pew Research Center survey of more than 45,000 people (pdf file here), from 47 nations:

In poorer nations, religion remains central to the lives of individuals, while secular perspectives are more common in richer nations. (Religiosity was measured using a three-item index ranging from 0-3, with “3″ representing the most religious position. Respondents were given a “1″ if they believe faith in God is necessary for morality; a “1″ if they say religion is very important in their lives; and a “1″ if they pray at least once a day.) There are some exceptions, including most notably the USA, which is a much more religious country than its level of prosperity would indicate — 57% say that one must believe in God to have good values and be moral, while 41% disagree.

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In all 47 nations included in the survey, large majorities believe that international trade is benefiting their countries.

Large majorities in nearly every country surveyed express the view that there should be greater restriction of immigration and tighter control of their country’s borders.

“World Publics Welcome Global Trade — But Not Immigration,” Pew Global Attitudes Project

A decade ago, Israeli researchers found that the average intensive care unit (ICU) patient required 180 individual actions per day. The nurses and doctors were observed to make an error in just 1% of these actions — but that still amounted to an average of 2 errors per day.

ICUs in the US put five million lines into patients each year. After 10 days, 4% of those lines become infected. After 10 days with a urinary catheter, 4% of ICU patients develop a bladder infection. After 10 days on a ventilator, 6% develop bacterial pneumonia, resulting in death forty to fifty-five per cent of the time. About half of ICU patients end up experiencing a serious complication.

In 2001, Peter Pronovost, of Johns Hopkins Hospital, decided to try a checklist as a way of avoiding line infections. He plotted out the steps to take in order to avoid infections when putting a line in. Doctors are supposed to (1) wash their hands with soap, (2) clean the patient’s skin with chlorhexidine antiseptic, (3) put sterile drapes over the entire patient, (4) wear a sterile mask, hat, gown, and gloves, and (5) put a sterile dressing over the catheter site once the line is in. These steps had been known and taught for years. Still, Pronovost found that in more than a third of patients, doctors skipped at least one.

Pronovost persuaded the hospital administration to authorize nurses to stop doctors if they saw them skipping a step on the checklist. Nurses were also to ask them each day whether any lines ought to be removed, so as not to leave them in longer than necessary.

Over the next year the ten-day line-infection rate fell from 11% to zero. Over the next fifteen months only 2 line infections occurred. In this one hospital, the checklist had prevented about 43 infections and 8 deaths, and saved $2M in costs.

Pronovost then made a checklist to insure that nurses observe patients for pain at least once every 4 hours and provide timely pain medication. This reduced the likelihood of a patient’s experiencing untreated pain from 41% to 3%. When he tested a checklist for patients on mechanical ventilation, the proportion of patients who didn’t receive the recommended care dropped from 70% to 4%. The occurrence of pneumonias fell by a quarter and 21 fewer patients died than in the previous year. Simply having the doctors and nurses in the ICU make their own checklists for what they thought should be done each day improved the consistency of care to the point that, within a few weeks, the average length of patient stay in intensive care dropped by half.

Often personnel fail to grasp the importance of standard precautions. In a survey of ICU staff taken before introducing the ventilator checklists, for example, Pronovost found that half hadn’t realized that there was evidence strongly supporting giving ventilated patients antacid medication.

In 2003, he Michigan Health and Hospital Association asked Pronovost to try out 3 of his checklists in Michigan’s ICUs. The infection rates for ICU patients in Michigan hospitals were higher than the national average. Chlorhexidine soap, shown to reduce line infections, was available in fewer than a third of the ICUs.

Within the first 3 months of the project, the infection rate in Michigan’s ICUs decreased by 66%. The typical ICU cut its quarterly infection rate to zero. Michigan’s infection rates fell so low that its average ICU outperformed 90% of ICUs nationwide. In the first 18 months, the hospitals saved an estimated $180M in costs and more than 1500 lives. The successes have been sustained for almost 4 years.

“The Checklist,” by Atul Gawande

According to a study by Magna Global’s Steve Sternberg (”The Media Age Report.” Pdf file here), the five broadcast netsworks’ average live (not including delayed DVR viewing) median age was 50 last season.

The median age for US households is 38.

“TV viewers’ average age hits 50,” by Michael Schneider

Since 1980, average air temperatures in Europe have risen 1°C: much more than expected from greenhouse-gas warming alone. Christian Ruckstuhl of the Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science, Rolf Philipona, et al., took aerosol concentrations from six locations in northern Europe, measured between 1986 and 2005, and compared them with solar-radiation measurements over the same period. Aerosol concentrations dropped by up to 60% over the 29-year period, while solar radiation rose by around 1 watt per square metre (see “Aerosol and cloud effects on solar brightening and the recent rapid warming“). “The decrease in aerosols probably accounts for at least half of the warming over Europe in the last 30 years,” says Philipona.

The latest climate models are built on the assumption that aerosols have their biggest influence by seeding natural clouds, which reflect sunlight. However, the team found that radiation dropped only slightly on cloudy days, suggesting that the main impact of aerosols is to block sunlight directly.

“Cleaner skies explain surprise rate of warming,” New Scientist