As usual, a great comic from xkcd. I’ve fallen for this misleading comparison myself:
6 thoughts on “Truth in Numbers”
Is it really dishonest? Or just that we, the information receivers, should pay more attention?
Sounds like blame-shifting to me: “It’s the media! the media!”; “No, its society!”; “The sky is falling in!”.
Wow, I had not heard the “billion” until now, I wonder which news organization was saying that? I thought I was hearing “million.” Maybe my hearing is worse than I thought! Regardless, those corporations the taxpayers are bailing out should not be giving bonuses to anyone. Rewarding failure just doesn’t make any sense! As a taxpayer I feel very violated by the whole situation!
Wonderful comic! We must remember that everyone will twist the truth to their own purposes. Take life with a grain of salt!
Missing the point: Acting as if the outrage over the bonuses is stupid because it is a small portion of the bailout.
Getting it: Understanding that corporate fucktards who torpedoed the financial system getting any bonuses is an outrage.
amy, I think you missed the point. “Billion” is correct. $170,000 million is just another (more obtuse) way of expressing the figure. Apparently the author believes that it would be more honest of news organizations to reference the figure this way: “One hundred seventy thousand million”.
I don’t see how the truth is being twisted one way or the other here.
I agree. The way they present some of these numbers that are being thrown around is pretty ridiculous. Especially when you are talking about TRILLIONS of dollars. I really don’t think most people comprehend how much a TRILLION dollars is…its nuts!!!! I would like to see more graphs that show the difference between some of these numbers, I think it would really open peoples eyes.
Is it really dishonest? Or just that we, the information receivers, should pay more attention?
Sounds like blame-shifting to me: “It’s the media! the media!”; “No, its society!”; “The sky is falling in!”.
Wow, I had not heard the “billion” until now, I wonder which news organization was saying that? I thought I was hearing “million.” Maybe my hearing is worse than I thought! Regardless, those corporations the taxpayers are bailing out should not be giving bonuses to anyone. Rewarding failure just doesn’t make any sense! As a taxpayer I feel very violated by the whole situation!
Wonderful comic! We must remember that everyone will twist the truth to their own purposes. Take life with a grain of salt!
Missing the point: Acting as if the outrage over the bonuses is stupid because it is a small portion of the bailout.
Getting it: Understanding that corporate fucktards who torpedoed the financial system getting any bonuses is an outrage.
amy, I think you missed the point. “Billion” is correct. $170,000 million is just another (more obtuse) way of expressing the figure. Apparently the author believes that it would be more honest of news organizations to reference the figure this way: “One hundred seventy thousand million”.
I don’t see how the truth is being twisted one way or the other here.
I agree. The way they present some of these numbers that are being thrown around is pretty ridiculous. Especially when you are talking about TRILLIONS of dollars. I really don’t think most people comprehend how much a TRILLION dollars is…its nuts!!!! I would like to see more graphs that show the difference between some of these numbers, I think it would really open peoples eyes.