INNUMERACY & its consequences

    Hi.

    When we do not have mastery of our spoken language, the condition is described as illiteracy.

    If we do not have mastery over numbers, the condition is described as innumeracy. Douglas Hofstadter says very few people are numerate. Most suffer from innumeracy. For this, few can really grasp what it really means to be in debt to the numeric orders of magnitude as cited below.

 

    The national debt of Greece is today under 380 billion euros. And for this, there is now civil disorder, massive unemployment, woe, pain and suffering.

    That of the united kingdom is just over 900 billion pounds or just over 1 trillion u.s. dollars. Yet this debt is nearly 3 times greater that of Greece.

    That of the U.S. is over 16 trillion dollars. This debt is 16 times greater than the U.K. national debt and 32 times greater than the Greek national debt.

 

    When the great nations of the West are in this kind of mess, by our innumeracy, there is not one whisper of a request let alone a demand that our political leaders discharge their fiduciary responsibilities in a manner that is in accord with the greater collective good.