6 ms·

Tangential, but why do people write things like "even after adjusting for inflation" when discussing long timespans (40 years in this case)? Is there any reaso

by _bpo 10y ago

Tangential, but why do people write things like "even after adjusting for inflation" when discussing long timespans (40 years in this case)? Is there any reason to not adjust for inflation? The "even..." in the sentence suggests that the author is being liberal with potential critics when it would seem only rudimentary to acknowledge inflation when discussing a 40-year timespan. A typical (new) car cost ~$4.5k in 1977 in the US....

petters 10y ago
I agree but I think it is just a way to explicitly state that this adjustment was performed and not forgotten. Better would be: "Per student spending has increased about 2.5x in the past forty years (after adjusting for inflation)."
nabla9 10y ago
It's a common idiom used when writing for general audience. Distinction between real and nominal is not at all clear to the public.
Tenoke 10y ago
Because news articles often don't adjust for it when making their arguments, and savvy readers are used to thinking "yeah, this argument only sounds right because they don't adjust for inflation".
- matt4077 10y ago
  [citation needed]
  - Tenoke 10y ago
    I really hope that this is a bot making that comment, and not someone asking me for a citation on why I think the author has used a certain wording.
    - matt4077 10y ago
      Not a bot, just a regular reader of quality newspapers who cannot remember a single case of an article making that mistake. It's slightly disheartening to see how the collective mind has turned on journalists to a point where any and all accusations can be levelled against them and will be assumed to be true.
      - clort 10y ago
        Tenote mentioned > news articles and you mentioned > quality newspapers now, these things are not necessarily congruent. You might think that you read a quality newspaper, but how many people get their news from such? It certainly seems that more people get it from trashy tabloids in the UK (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_newspapers_in_the_United_Kingdom_by_circulation#2010_to_present https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_newspapers_in_the_Unit... for reference) and there will be vastly more 'news articles' than exist in quality newspapers. and anyway, is 'slatestarcodex.com' one of your quality newspapers? Certainly I've never heard of it, so I was happy to see that phrase included though I was not going to check their references anyway.
        Tenoke 10y ago
        This isn't really the point here, but for what is worth slatestarcodex is actually really rigorous, and of really high quality. The author always makes sure to triple check everything, consider all sides, be explicit about things that he might be missing, etc. And the comment section there is pretty comparable to the comment section on HN in terms of quality.
  - mcherm 10y ago
    If adding the word "even" clarifies things for even just a tiny percentage of readers (clearly Tenoke found it helpful, and so did I), then it is worth doing. Sure, the article is quite long (Scott Alexander's writing often is), but the incremental cost of this one word (albeit repeated a few times in the article) does not increase that much.
venomsnake 10y ago
> Is there any reason to not adjust for inflation? Lies, damned lies and statistics. It is easier to mislead if you don't adjust.

by _bpo 10y ago

petters 10y ago

I agree but I think it is just a way to explicitly state that this adjustment was performed and not forgotten. Better would be: "Per student spending has increased about 2.5x in the past forty years (after adjusting for inflation)."

nabla9 10y ago

It's a common idiom used when writing for general audience. Distinction between real and nominal is not at all clear to the public.

Tenoke 10y ago

Because news articles often don't adjust for it when making their arguments, and savvy readers are used to thinking "yeah, this argument only sounds right because they don't adjust for inflation".

matt4077 10y ago
[citation needed]
- Tenoke 10y ago
  I really hope that this is a bot making that comment, and not someone asking me for a citation on why I think the author has used a certain wording.
  - matt4077 10y ago
    Not a bot, just a regular reader of quality newspapers who cannot remember a single case of an article making that mistake. It's slightly disheartening to see how the collective mind has turned on journalists to a point where any and all accusations can be levelled against them and will be assumed to be true.
    - clort 10y ago
      Tenote mentioned > news articles and you mentioned > quality newspapers now, these things are not necessarily congruent. You might think that you read a quality newspaper, but how many people get their news from such? It certainly seems that more people get it from trashy tabloids in the UK (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_newspapers_in_the_United_Kingdom_by_circulation#2010_to_present https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_newspapers_in_the_Unit... for reference) and there will be vastly more 'news articles' than exist in quality newspapers. and anyway, is 'slatestarcodex.com' one of your quality newspapers? Certainly I've never heard of it, so I was happy to see that phrase included though I was not going to check their references anyway.
      - Tenoke 10y ago
        This isn't really the point here, but for what is worth slatestarcodex is actually really rigorous, and of really high quality. The author always makes sure to triple check everything, consider all sides, be explicit about things that he might be missing, etc. And the comment section there is pretty comparable to the comment section on HN in terms of quality.
- mcherm 10y ago
  If adding the word "even" clarifies things for even just a tiny percentage of readers (clearly Tenoke found it helpful, and so did I), then it is worth doing. Sure, the article is quite long (Scott Alexander's writing often is), but the incremental cost of this one word (albeit repeated a few times in the article) does not increase that much.

venomsnake 10y ago

> Is there any reason to not adjust for inflation? Lies, damned lies and statistics. It is easier to mislead if you don't adjust.