“If you’ve been wondering why you’re tired,” begins an old magazine article, “here’s why”:
No matter how tired you may be, your exhaustion is fully justified, as can be proven by simple arithmetic. The United States has a population of some 200 million. Of these, 72 million are past retirement age, leaving 128 million in the work force. When you subtract the 75 million people who are either too young or still in school, you get 53 million left to do the work. There are 24 million employed by the Federal Government, which leaves only 29 million in the work force. Subtract from that the 12 million in the Military and the work force is down to 17 million. Another 15,765,000 are in State and Municipal offices, 520,000 in hospitals and mental institutions, and this reduces the work force to 715,000. Of these 462,000 are vagrants, hoboes or dilettantes, leaving only 253,000 in the work force. But there are 252,998 people in jail, leaving…
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