My college professor in Logic taught me about statistical fallacy, e.g. if a statistic says that only 35% of Americans approve of President Bush's job performance, it doesn't really mean that only 104,227,817.05 (w/c is 35% of 297,793,763) Americans like him. In fact it only means 700 of the usual number of 2000 people polled (with +- 2% margin of error) like him. Statisitcs are supposed to save time, so governtment won't use it all up by physically counting who needs what when and where.
Surprisingly stats can also be used to entertain. Numbers become factoids and trivia (ex. Every two minutes, somewhere in America, someone is sexually assaulted; One million U.S. students took guns to school in 1998, etc.) and they also make for good headlines.
I know I'm not supposed to take these Numb3rs at face value, but it irks me to read things like, "the Department of Education has reported to Congress that fully 75 percent of elementary school graduates "cannot read independently." Good god! Seventy five percent?!? I thought we were a country with a 92% literacy rate?!? What, was everybody cheating during the entrance exams?
See what I mean by irked? Earlier this year (March) it was reported that 30 of Filipinos didn't know that having sex can result in pregnancy. Well, at least it isn't elementary students trying to have sex. God forbid they trouble themselves with trying to read the instructions on the back of a condom pack.
No comments:
Post a Comment