Nonsensical Math

[ysabetwordsmith]

Here's an example of the nonsensical math in municipal budgets. 

Now I'm bad at math.  I'm lucky to get the same answer three times running on a calculator.  I know this, so I've chosen a career that requires little math, and have other people who can do math for me when necessary.  I understand basic stuff like "don't carry more money than you can handle" and "don't buy things you can't afford." The scary thing?  I'm in the top third nationally according to school tests.  That means two-thirds are worse than that.

Apparently, they are not also smart enough to avoid careers that require math.  They just half-ass their way through it.  They do things so stupid that even I, with my anti-knack for math, can see that this is bad economics.

You know, if we had more women and more poor people in politics, I think less of this would happen.  They damn well know how to stretching a dollar until you could play it like a rubber-band guitar.

Comments

[ndrosen]

This doesn’t sound to me like a case of people being unable to do math, although I wouldn’t recommend them for careers in physics, but of being unable or unwilling to set priorities and to do economics.

Well ...

[ysabetwordsmith]

Priorities and incentives are both serious issues. But underlying all this is a fundamental limitation on how much people can hold in their heads. Are they willing and able to calculate how much money a given project will cost to do, how much it will cost to maintain, how much it will bring in taxes or other income, and then compare that against the city's budget? Apparently not. They get fixated on one part of the problem -- how many jobs it will create for 6 months -- and forget about the rest. If you balanced your checkbook that way, you'd overdraw it quickly, and people would say you're bad at math and personal finance.

Re: Well ...

[(Anonymous)]

>>...you'd overdraw it quickly, and people would say you're bad at math and personal finance.<<

Nah, they'd call you a lazy ner-do-well and complain about poor /lazy people ruining the economy. Possibly with one of those dumbass preachy lectures that involve what the giver thinks you need to hear.