9.22.2006

Interesting Analysis

The following was pulled from the Comments (under the Elmo toy) and reposted her for your assessment: The WCM reports that the Wise County Regional Hospital claims a $300 million annual economic impact on Wise County. Are they crazy? Based on a population of about 50,000 people, that's $6,000 better off every man, woman, child, illegal, and inmate should be each year. Or about $20,000 to $25,000 for every single family, based on average family size. In other words, the hospital is claiming it accounts for more than half of all income in the county. That's strange, thought hospitals were things that local people paid into, and not things that cut checks for $20,000 each year to every family in the county. Economic impact studies are notorious for overmultiplying, overestimating, and counting every dollar even if the dollars come from the local area.