What Goes Up

We are constantly hearing stories about how something has gone up -- autism rates, breast cancer rates, motorcycle crashes... but there are stories about things that go down as well.

You know how some crazy people predicted computers would lead to the "paperless office"? And then we all just printed our emails anyway and proved them wrong?

Well, it turns out those people were partially right, at least in the long term: We are actually using less paper. In her Sunday column in Parade magazine, Marilyn vos Savant (the smartest person on Earth, yada yada) wrote that U.S. paper consumption peaked in 1999, and that today we are using about as much paper as we were in 1989.

Today's Star Tribune contained two other stories about things that went up and then came down, set one above the other on the front page. The first story (by Associated Press) reported a very large drop in the number of American children with elevated lead levels: In 1988, 9 percent of kids had lead levels of 10 micrograms or more per deciliter of blood. In 2004 (the most recent year available), the percentage had fallen to 1.4. Since lead damages the nervous system and results in memory, behavior and learning problems, this is clearly a good thing.

The second story reported on the amount of money Minnesota provides to families with children who file for public assistance. In 1986, it was $437 for a two-person family, and $532 for three. Today, in 2009, the amount is exactly the same, which means that its buying power is just over 50% of what it was in 1986. So much for the idea Minnesota is a "welfare magnet," often repeated by conservative pundits. You can't even rent a one-bedroom apartment for that much, and the list to get on the list for subsidized housing is backed up about 10 years.