By Mark Rhoads
Social psychologists often bemoan the dangers of illiteracy or semi-literacy in America. Its true that the ability to read and write and understand English is critical to getting a good job and making a living. But few people talk about the dangers of "innumeracy" or the lack of ability to use and understand math and numbers at a basic level. It does not matter if you are left brained or right brained, basic understanding of numbers is a necessary skill that too many lack starting with journalists.
Nora O'Donnell on MSNBC said on Friday that the country would soon have almost five million people unemployed and the number was "unprecedented" in American history. Surely she is over-looking other recessions that were worse and 1933 when there were more than 13 million unemployed (in a country with one-third the population) or 25 percent of the work force, not seven to eight percent as is the present case. Many journalists, particularly political journalists, are ignorant about numbers and what they mean.
I tried to point out to a reporter that the recent stimulus bill was enough money to build a forest of 787 buildings the size of Sears Tower each costing one billion, or 1,000 times one million dollars each. He did not seem to think that was very much money. He reminded me of the idiot savant character that Dustin Hoffman played in the movie Rain Man with Tom Cruise as his younger brother. Hoffman's character Raymond Babbit is asked what he thinks various things cost and no matter if the item is a candy bar or a new car, Raymond thinks the cost is "about a hundred dollars."
In 1987, I had only a few minutes to teach a former network newsman the difference between the words "deficit" and "national debt" and the relationship between the two concepts. When I explained that the total debt was the sum total of many yearly deficits plus interest, he cheerfully said, "Thanks, I never got that before." He had won several Emmy Awards for his reporting but lacked some basic skills in math.
For attorneys who practice law, there is a good system for learning called something like the Institute for Continuing Legal Education. Maybe journalists could benefit from getting recertified by their profession from time to time on their understanding of basic math and science.
