« this week in racism | Main | unarrested »
September 30, 2011
poll: does susie have cancer?
What I mostly remember from my graduate-level Economics class at Ohio State was a cascading series of oh nos.
John, realizing that he had to take a graduate-level Econ class: "Oh no."
John, walking into the summer class and seeing 400 Japanese students and one empty chair. "Oh no!"
John, reading the syllabus and determining that yes, this class would be graded on a curve: "Oh no!!!"
John, hearing the Greek professor's indecipherable accent for the first time: (faceplant into desk, plaintive wailing)
It was the hardest C- I ever earned in my life. The Japanese kids actually hired a translator to transcribe the lectures. As for me, well, it all remained Greek to me.
I also remember the professor calling me "very Republican" for saying that the gasoline tax disproportionately hurt poor people, which was news to me. And here I'd thought I was just poor.
I recall this class today because I also remember something useful: a recession is two consecutive quarters of negative GDP, and a depression is when it extends to six. This is eminently objective and measurable. So why are CNN and People magazine using public opinion polls to determine whether we're in a recession?
This is not the Sexiest Man Alive competition, folks. Diagnosis by poll respondents is beyond irrelevant. If you contract cancer, are you diagnosing that by Internet poll too?
posted by john at 9:07 AM • permalink