Persons working with numbers enjoy doing so because numbers reflect exactness. No number is like another and any number gives a very specific dimension to something. For instance, 80 per cent means something which 79 per cent or 81 per cent do not. Moreover persons working with numbers know that there is no finiteness in numbers. Any number can always be improved by adding just one to it.
On the other hand we need to accept that there are things in life that are so complex and diverse that they cannot be reduced to one single number or even a series of numbers. The economy is one such thing. Economic statistics are very often based on averages and these averages misrepresent what really happens in people’s lives.
The example I always give in this regard is that single person who is unemployed and actively seeking for a job. We may all be happy that the rate of unemployment is going down (this is an average rate in itself). However, for that person who is unemployed and actively seeking a job and cannot find one, it is a most dramatic situation, which any average cannot simply hide or send away.
If we turn our attention to the economy, we measure economic growth through the gross...
↧