Saturday, September 15, 2007

 

This Day in the History of Being Really Wrong



On this day in 1997 , Vice President Al Gore and Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman reported that over 30 million Americans (roughly 1 in 9) were suffering from hunger. Yeah, I see those miserable, wasting away fellow citizens all over the place. Don't you? It's actually just the opposite; nearly 1 in 5 are morbidly obese and the lion's share of those are poor people who eat more sugar and carbohydrate than protein. You have to wonder, when someone has been so spectacularly wrong on one subject, whether he or she (here a couple of hes) can get anything right. Judging from the picture of Gore above, he's not one of the alleged 30 million suffering from hunger.

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"Hunger in American households has risen by 43 percent over the last five years, according to an analysis of US Department of Agriculture (USDA) data released today. The analysis, completed by the Center on Hunger and Poverty at Brandeis University, shows that more than 7 million people have joined the ranks of the hungry since 1999.
The USDA report, Household Food Security in the United States, 2004, says that 38.2 million Americans live in households that suffer directly from hunger and food insecurity, including nearly 14 million children. That figure is up from 31 million Americans in 1999."

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/10/051029093925.htm
 
Peter, you can't have it both ways. There can't be an epidemic of obesity among the poor and increased starvation among the poor. I'll look at the numbers, but I suspect that the Center on Hunger and Poverty at Brandeis University would find hunger in figures from the American Society of Gourmonds. You'll notice that the so called increase is after the figures given by Gore and Glickman a decade ago. Also from 31 to 38.2 is not a 43% increase. Even math challenged I can see that. It's a 23.2% increase.
 
Just one of numerous studies with the same findings. (And whats the problem with Brandeis U. It has a pretty solid reputation). You can quibble about the math, and even question what seems to be pretty accepted findings, but I'm sure you'll agree that the data hardly warrants an allegation that Gore was "spectacularly wrong".
 
I'll post on why gore and Glickman were and Brandeis is spectacularly wrong. 'Quibble about the math' for a 50% error. You're not serious.
 
Since when, is point ing out a 20 % statistical error...."quibbling about the math " ?......it leads the cogent minded individual to wonder the accuracy of the rest of the "data".
 
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