Statistics: Lies and Damn Lies

The technology amazingly catches the changes in the life expectancies and income levels of nations. However, as we all know it, statistics can be used to misinterpret the issues which are controversial. Look at the x-axis: it is on an exponential (non-linear) scale so the final graph is log-linear. This means the gap between the west and the rest is not actually closing. The gap between the richest and the poorest is definitely getting larger but this cannot be clearly seen on the graph. Before 1900, the range was from 400 to 4000. But now it is from $400 - $4,000 (African, South American and some Asian nations) to $40,000 (European and some Asian nations). But think about it, is $400 - $4000/year enough for anything today? It might be better before 1900. And also, the income level by itself only cannot measure a nation's wealth. We need to look at the purchasing power of that wealth.

I believe the final comment is too optimistic (with the aid, trade, green technology and peace, everyone can make it to healthy/wealthy corner!!!) and needs to be revised. Neo-liberalists keep bending the truth of injustice by the celebration of high sums. Isn't it the same reason behind the bankrupt countries of Europe? Yes, sums are getting larger (perhaps naturally) but at the same time the variations in the income levels are getting bigger as well. See the wikipedia article about the GDP per capita of the all countries in the world. The richest country in the world is more than 1000 times richer than the poorest one. This means people in Qatar makes/spends 3 times more money in one day than people in Brundi spends/makes in one year. The gap is closing? My understanding is we should not trust the misleading graphs and their over-interpretations as it is easy to lie about numbers and it seems it is even easier to lie with the help of spectacular graphs.

Other than this, I too enjoyed the colourful bubbles moving in the air and telling me that we are all better off today compared to our grandfathers in 1850s although it does seem too good to be true.

A. A.