There are many things special about the number nine, as this video from the early ’90s PBS show Square One illustrates so well.
The number that comes right before 10 is having a bit of a renaissance recently, of course, as this video from ThinkProgress which features that Square One clip also shows.
Today, Fox News tried to get to the bottom of the number 9’s resurgence.
In an interview with Herman Cain’s economic guru Rich Lowrie, Fox News’ Jenna Lee asked the burning question about Cain’s tax plan on everyone’s mind.
“With the 999 plan, why 999 and not 888 or ten, ten, ten?” she asked. “What’s so special about the number nine?”
Why not indeed. Lee’s not the only one to ask the question, actually: The independent analyst Cain asked to score his plan told the New York Times a better number would probably be “9.1-9.1.9.1.” (The paper noted that “does not trip off the tongue,” however.)
Cain told the Times that he and Lowrie came up with the oft-repeated triple-nine plan thusly:
Cain, a math major in college, said he had asked Mr. Lowrie to do a “regression analysis” that would allow the government to eliminate all existing taxes, including those on capital gains and estates, and collect the same revenue from just three streams. “The number came up to be 9 percent,” Mr. Cain said. “And that’s how we came up with 9-9-9.”
Lowrie gave a similar answer to Fox:
That kind of came in when all of the — all was said and done. The marching orders from Cain is that it’s got to be consistent with the three economic guiding principles, production drives the economy, not consumption, risk taking drives growth, and that measurements have to be dependable, the dollar has to be a dollar the way an hour is always 60 minutes, then he said I want something simple, transparent, efficient, fair, and neutral. I want to tax everything once but nothing twice, and those kind of formed the borders of the puzzle, and then it was a matter of just kind of putting the rest together.
Here’s the video:
