When faced with the incomprehensible, the average American frequently reaches for the nearest statistic. Computers help promote this national mania by providing an easy way to churn out sometimes dubious quantifications. Last week a Joint Economic Committee study of the effects of the economy on health showed how easily pseudostatistical precision can be taken for fact.
The author of the report, M. Harvey Brenner of the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, linked the sharp rise in unem ployment during the 1973-74 recession to a subsequent 2.8% rise hi deaths from heart attacks. Brenner found that a 3% decline in...
To continue reading:
or
Log-In
