Percentages are a part of mathematics that a lot of students struggle with. But they should be a breeze for any alumnus of Fordham University or a Penn State Wharton School of Business graduate with a bachelor's degree in economics, like MAGA Republican President Donald Trump.
For example, if you're talking about tangible items, like prices for prescription drugs, those can increase by any percentage, and often do.
For example, to double the price of a $12 item, increase it by 100%. 100% is all of something, so 100% of $12 is $12. A 100% price increase changes the price to $24—double the original price.
Or if you want a two-pack of EpiPens that cost about $100 to cost about $600, increase it by more than 500%, like the pharmaceutical company Mylan N.V. did between 2007 and 2016.
Or if you want a quicker return, increase the price of a pill that costs $13.50-$17.50 by over 4,000-5,000% so it costs $750, like Martin Shkreli did in 2015 with Daraprim, a drug used to treat infections in people with HIV, while he was at the helm of Turing Pharmaceuticals.
But decreases in prices have a maximum percentage of 100%, since that's all of something. A 100% decrease on a $12 item is a $12 decrease, so the item now costs $0. Unless a business plans to hand out checks, price decreases never exceed 100%.
It seems complex, but it's really simple for anyone trained in economics or for anyone with experience running a business, like Donald Trump.
Or at least one would assume.
When speaking about his executive order to reduce drug prices on Tuesday, Trump stated:
"We will have reduced drug prices by 1,000% by 1100, 1200, 1300, 1400, 700, 600."
"Not 30 or 40 or 50%, but numbers the likes of which you’ve never even dreamed of before."
There's a good reason no one ever dreamed of those numbers before.
A 1,400% price decrease on that $12 item is a $168 decrease. Someone would need to cut a check for $156.
Trump added his decreases were "not even thought to be achievable." Again, there's a good reason for that.
But boasted they would happen, because:
"I’ve used a certain talent that I have and convinced the drug companies that you have no choice."
While many people would welcome pharmaceutical companies paying them to take their insulin or cancer medications, it's unlikely to happen.
People were appalled, but unsurprised, that Trump has no grasp of percentages and pricing.
@dgtechllc/X
This is actually Trump's second stab at drumming up enthusiasm—a.k.a. distracting from the Epstein files—so it's no wonder he felt the need to up the ante. In his Monday announcement, he only claimed 90% price reductions.
And that announcement got skewered by Jon Stewart on The Daily Show for Trump's odd references to prices changing "mathematically," his claiming to have invented a new word, and telling another of his stories about a likely nonexistent friend who's taking the "fat shot."
You can watch Trump's Monday presser and Stewart's take here:
Since drugs are going to be free with hefty payouts from Big Pharma, per Trump, maybe it's a good time to tell him canceling student loan debt mathematically would make everyone forget about Jeffrey Epstein.
Just a thought.
@GregAbbott_TX/X
