Overall then, quantitative methods do not only support the advancement of modern day medicine, but they are essential to the creation of new drugs and new treatments.

c) Outsourcing

This third example of how quantitative analysis is used within the modern day American society is a rather sensitive issue for the domestic population and this is due to the fact that its application has often materialized in the loss of jobs. Specifically, the opening of boundaries and the liberalization of markets has created a context in which American economic agents were able to transcend boundaries and benefit from the comparative advantage of other regions. While in some cases, this advantage referred to natural resources or technological skills, in most cases it revolved around cost effective labor force.

The United States firms as such seized the opportunity to increase their profitability rates and closed their plants in the country, to open new manufacturing or service delivery plants in other states. These new plants operated at lower costs and as such the plant owners substantially increased their profits. But the American citizens lost their jobs and the social costs were tremendous. Some examples as to how quantitative methods are applied in the process of outsourcing -- and its outcomes -- include the following:

The computation of the costs incurred by the firm by operating the plant in the United States and their comparison with the costs incurred in the operation of a plant in a more cost effective foreign country. The computation of the costs in various foreign countries considered as viable solutions.

The analysis of the barriers to entering a specific country, such as political, social or economic barriers and the computation of the resources to be consumed in the overcoming of the barriers.

The analysis of the estimated return on the investment, the percentage increase in profitability, the number of years it would take for the investment to become profitable and so on.

The measurement of the social and economic impact of job loss in the United States through the assessment of elements such as unemployment rate, the costs for the federal budget with the increasing unemployment, the impact on the education of the children whose parents were downsized; the living standards of the population, the impact on crime rates and so on.

Aside from the examples above mentioned, quantitative analysis is present in numerous other fields and instances. The list of such instances is virtually endless, but some examples worth noting refer to the following:

The percentages of immigrants in the United States, including both legal immigrants and the illegal immigrants, with the socio-economic impacts they generate for the state, such as the revenues generated to the state budgets by the legal immigrants vs. The costs incurred by the federal authority in the provision of education and

The areas with the highest crime rates.
The geographic construction, such as the size of the arable land, the land which is used for agriculture or other activities and the correlation with the export and import requirements.

The general state of the economy, the evolution of the dollar in regard to other currencies; the evolution of the labor force market, the industries which still offer employment opportunities as opposed to the industries which do not hire. The living standards of the population and the economic strength of the United States as opposed to the economic state of other nations and global regions.

The understanding of the society and the identification of its problems to be solved by the understanding of its structure based on income, educational level, job attainment as well as any other relevant features.

Understanding the spirituality and religious appurtenance of the American society. In the United States for instance, 51 per cent of the population is Protestant, 24 per cent in Roman Catholic, 1.7 per cent is Mormon, 1.6 per cent in other Christian, with the rest being Buddhist, Muslim or atheists (Central Intelligence Agency, 2011).

The understanding of the level of technological development and the access of the population to the technological development. At an international level for instance, the United States possesses the largest number of internet hosts and the second largest number of internet users, after China (Central Intelligence Agency, 2011).

As it has already been mentioned, the list of such examples could virtually go on for an unlimited period of time and for countless pages. But what remains valid is that quantitative methods are omnipresent within the society and they can be used to explain any phenomenon, from an individual dilemma, to an international situation.

6. Conclusions

The American society of the modern day and age is highly complex and sophisticated. And in order to make sense of it, the usage of quantitative tools is essential. The quantitative methods are generically understood as complex mathematic and statistics solutions which process numeric information and retrieve objective and unbiased information and conclusions. There are numerous types of quantitative tools and this increased flexibility allows for any group or individual to utilize those tools which best respond to their own needs.

At the level of the overall American society, the list of examples as to how quantitative tools are used is virtually endless. The current project has assessed three specific examples, selected based on their current importance in the society -- elections, medical developments and outsourcing. Other examples include the assessment of crime rates, social and economic features, technological levels of development and so on. Overall, the quantitative tools are omnipresent within the modern day American society and they are expected to remain important, if not so grow even more significant.