Wednesday, April 19, 2017

Percentages Again

The local Leo’s have released their crime statistics for 2016 and guess what? Crime is up. Not surprised. The report points out which crimes rose, like murder, rape and mayhem - up about 18%. What does that tell you?

Why do people use percentages? I hate percentages. They are meaningless unless you have numbers to put them into perspective. An 18% increase of 1000 is substantial, but 18% of 4 or 5 ain’t much. The media loves percentages.

Doctors love percentages. "If you do this or that you increase your chance of dying by 50%," they will tell you. In the first place, you have a 100% of dying. And, if you double your chances and whatever they are talking about is one in a million, then two in a million doesn’t mean much to me.

I have addressed this annoyance before.

There is a 100% chance, I will again.

PMO
©2017

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