Counting: How We Use Numbers to Decide What Matters - Rilegato

Stone, Deborah

 
9781631495922: Counting: How We Use Numbers to Decide What Matters

Sinossi

And yet, in this age of big data and metric mania, numbers shape almost every facet of our lives: whether we get hired, fired, or promoted; whether we get into college or out of prison; how our opinions are gathered and portrayed to politicians; or how government designs health and safety regulations. In warm and playful prose, Counting explores what happens when we measure nebulous notions like merit, race, poverty, pain, or productivity.When so much rides on numbers, they can become instruments of social welfare, justice, and democracy—or not. The citizens of Flint, Michigan, for instance, used numbers to prove how their household water got contaminated and to force their government to take remedial action. In stark contrast, the Founding Fathers finessed an intractable conflict by counting each slave as three-fifths of a person in the national census. They set a terrible precedent for today’s politicians who claim to solve moral and political dilemmas with arithmetic.Counting

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9781324091066: Counting: How We Use Numbers to Decide What Matters

Edizione in evidenza

ISBN 10:  1324091061 ISBN 13:  9781324091066
Casa editrice: Liveright Pub Corp, 2021
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