Mathematics and Philosophy
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This is evidenced by the heavy language aspects of algebra and the spatial thinking of geometry, as well as the formulations we create for fairness (social thinking), and the interplay between order and chaos in our music. |
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See also:
The original intent of this site was to demonstrate how mathematical reasoning could help us understand complex problems. A few pages were created with that intent:
- slogans to promote better math education
- what do common reasoning errors teach us about learning
- common errors in statistics
- errors in understanding trends
- why class size affects student learning
- fair is not a simple concept
- can a sport be non-zero sum
- how to reason about greenhouse gases
- how to reason about the impact of climate change
- drought and water supply
- why our experience fails to match the real world and how that reinforces prejudice
- how does math help us understand life
- reasoning about minimum wage and an alternative (maximum ratio)
- zero-sum elements in our free market economy
- exchange is composed of both mutually beneficial exchange and zero-sum components
- feedback failures in our free market economy
- making money is not the same as creating wealth
- why incentives promote cheating
- why tax cuts create bubbles instead of jobs
- human and resource considerations in supply and demand
The focus of this site drifted to using more rigorous analysis to support discussions about common numbers in the news.
- Reviewing federal budget trends and more and more detail
- tracking employment (second method) and standards of living and the recession of 2009
- climate change can be seen in local data
Eventually that drift naturally led to mathematically evaluating common beliefs. During this phase our focus has been mostly on busting common myths.
Economic Myths
- a flat tax would be fair (doubtful)
- the Fair Tax (consumption tax) would be fair (false)
- a flat tax (or consumption tax would affect people equally (false)
- a flat tax would help the middle class (false )
- the rich pay an unfair share of the taxes (false - actually their share of taxes correlates to their share of income)
- the rich pay an unfair tax rate (false - their rate is about the same as ours)
- the rich pay an unfair tax burden (false - estimates show tax burdens to be lower for the rich)
- tax cuts to the rich stimulate the economy (false) tax cuts to the middle class stimulate the economy (uncertain)
- Bush cut taxes (false - he increased total taxes, but transferred a significant portion to your children)
- taxes are at their highest rate ever (false relative to GDP)
- increased (Obama era) spending caused the deficit - (false - it was mostly caused by tax cuts)
- Republicans cut spending and deficits (false - only Clinton cut both, then George W Bush significantly increased both)
- unregulated markets benefit all citizens (false)
- the rising economy helped all Americans (false - the top 1/2% got most of the gains)
- Democrats suppress the economy (false - growth was highest under Clinton and Carter)
- the GDP grows fastest under Republicans (false - fastest under Clinton and Carter)
- the standard of living increases under Republicans (false - poverty increased while incomes declined during both Bush administrations, but wealth to the middle class increased under Carter, Reagan, and Clinton)
- standard economic measures are good indicators of the state of our economy (false due to unreasonable expectations)
Environmental Myths
- the climate has stopped warming (false)
- climate change will be good for us (doubtful)
- all exposures to radiation are harmful (doubtful)
Social Myths
More Myth-Busting
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