Rhetoric

Billlls first law of election year rhetoric: When a pol speaks of numbers, the real story in in the percentages, and vice versa. Comparing numbers to percentages is a perfect example of this.

Found here at Chris Blattman. His personal description suggests he's probably seen this sort of thing so many times he barely laughs at it any more. In a line of work that includes such descriptors as 'poverty', 'statistics', 'violence', and 'participation', a talent for this probably leads more than one NGO to big grants and possible foreign aid.

Hmmmm

Cleverly written, one could probably get the grant to include our own jet fighters complete with fuel and armaments for a year or three. Say Chris, have you thought about how much poverty we could eliminate by hiring unemployed ex-military to service a couple of obsolete F-16's, and what a boon to the economy the purchase of the fuel and munitions for the planes would be? And how much violence would be eliminated by us simply bombing and strafing cardboard targets out in Eastern Colorado instead of actual enemy combatants in some part of the world with marginal facilities and terrible weather? And the chicks we could meet if we got the 2-seat training models?

The hard work would be the statistical analysis of our bombing and strafing accuracy, an estimate of the amount of poverty we eliminated spending the $200M or so over 2 or 3 years, and something fairly discreet on the participation involvement of the chicks. I'm not seeing a down side here unless my wife finds out about the chicks.

As senior researchers I'm sure there would be a six-figure subsistence stipend in it for each of us.