Anyone who has come close to a community college in the last few years knows that critical thinking is the theme du jour. To produce responsible citizens, community colleges have taken on the task of getting students to think critically.
Along these lines, my class last night watched this YouTube video of an interpretation of Austan Goolsbee's (head of the Council of Economic Advisors to the president) presentation of the administration's economic record thus far:
For some in the older generation, this will bring to mind the book "How to Lie With Statistics" by Huff. The video shows both sides presenting the same data with opposing interpretations. And commentators wonder why the American people are confused by the economy!
Question: Which view do you agree with?
This was fascinating and really demonstrated how stats can be manipulated to support a political point of view. The party in power is always trying to put the most positive spin on the economy that they can, while the party out of power is doing the opposite. Personally, I thought the counterpoints were more realistic in portraying the true state of the economy.
ReplyDelete"There are lies, damn lies, and statistics..."
ReplyDeleteI agree that looking at the overall job picture rather than simply the rate of change gives a better visual impact as to what the actual situation is.