There appears to be a massive lacking in the basic understanding of math from the right wing members of our community. Let’s called them {removed – TUS}. As such, I think it is necessary to provide a bit of remedial education to them in order to promote more useful discussions.
Today’s topic is rates.
Conservatives tend to trot out total numbers, or “nominals,” to try to prove their narratives. This is not mathematically sound, because any nominal is entirely context specific, meaning comparing one nominal to the other is not only pointless, but downright disinformation.
Let me give a simple example.
You and I both own factories. Mine happens to be bigger, and so I can produce far more. In fact, while you produce 10 items per day, I produce 10,000. Nothing to do with our skills or abilities as individuals; I just have a bigger production facility.
Now not everything we make can be of the best quality. Sometimes things just don’t work and we get a defect. You? You only have one defect per day. Me? I have 100 a day!
So if you’re {removed – TUS}., you will crow that your product is far superior to mine, because while I have 100 defects a day, you only have one. More intelligent people will note that for you, 10% of your products are defects, while for me, 1% of mine are defects.
This is called a rate, and it’s the only way you can accurately compare between groups.
Now when you look at other things that have nominals, do keep in mind the context. Know out of how many, know that you’re using the same criteria, etc. It’s all far more important than the total numbers, because outside of their context they are as meaningless as a university education on a MAGA member.
I hope this simple example leads to a much better understanding of basic math, and to far better debates in the future. If you ever forget, don’t worry: I will be there to remind you.