Indian Poverty

Today, by some official estimations, the United States reached three hundred million people. That's a lot. It's also, coincidentally, the number of people in India thought to live below the line of poverty in that country.

As large as 300,000,000 is, though, there are probably some who think it's not big enough to be considered a "very large number." As a liberal arts major I, of course, am fascinated by the "Law of Very Large Numbers," but that may be because I never took a class in statistics. I've melded the Law of Very Large Numbers, with my understanding of Chaos Theory and Quantum Mechanics to come up with a unified theory of my own:

Anything can happen, and probably will.

The Law actually explains things to me and keeps me from losing my mind. As I understand it, it simply says that if you have a whole helluva lotta samples, just about anything can result. If you take enough showers, sooner or later, against all reasonable expectations, you'll think of Richard Nixon while scrubbing your armpits. It could be worse (he could show up while you're masterbating), but the connection between being naked and a disgraced ex-president coming together is explained by the law and, more importantly, signifies nothing.

Sometimes, though, people object to the Law and demand this universe act in a reasonable and consistent fashion. I remember the heartache of the 2000 election, when many were demanding each and every vote be counted and their unreasonable belief that out of several million votes none of them would be questionable.

That was before I learned about the Law, but even then I remembered my mother who worked at the polls every year until I was out of high school. After a long day directing people to the proper booth she and her colleagues had to do a "quick count" for the media, and she'd usually come home talking about how anywhere from five to ten percent of the ballots weren't clear. A large number of people, naturally, knew they'd ruined their ballot and had asked for replacements, but others either didn't notice, felt their motivations must have made their choice clear, or were ashamed.

It's not as if you can tell that they "took back" their vote or had some other second thoughts. They knew their intent, but it wasn't always clear from evidence. And, given millions of ballots, there are always bound to be many where you just can't tell.

The universe doesn't always follow strict cause and effect. Human relations are frequently misinterpreted, and butterflies on the other end of the world are flapping their fragile wings without any concern for the ensuing effects.

All in all, it makes for a lively place. Still, it's far too crowded for its own good.