It's all in the numbers

I find numbers and their relationships to be intriguing. I use numbers every day in my work (not accounting, thank goodness!) but the numbers thrown around in the news every day are mind boggling. My mind tends to wander at times and I start thinking about some random fact. Automatically, I start relating numbers.
Take the numbers thrown around for the uninsured in the US. It runs around 45 million people. This was before the current recession/depression. Now, the unemployment rate is roughly 10% nationally. Would that mean 35 million more are uninsured now? Has there been an overlap in these numbers? I would venture to guess that some of the 45 million uninsured are that way due to unemployment.
How about the healthcare cost number being tossed around? I think the current 10 year cost of the proposed healthcare bill is around $900 billion. That roughly breaks down to $3000 per person per year (unless I counted zeros erroneously). A family of four would be $12000. I can already buy insurance cheaper than that!
Global warming is another area where big numbers live. The argument over whether the earth is warming or cooling rages on. Scientists are measuring the "warmest year on record" or the "coldest year on record". Records started being kept in the 1880's. About 130 years ago! According to this website, the earth is about 4.5 billion years old. Basing any assumption of global warming or cooling on 130 years of measuring is like watching the Dow for one second and deciding what the yearly performance is!
On an ending note, I think we should devalue numbers. They are getting too big and they don't fit most calculators. When I get an answer like 2.8888888888888888888888888888889e-8, I don't know what the hell it is!