What's in a number?
Today I heard a couple of numbers that caught my attention:
45% of men will get cancer, and
35% of women will.
Think about that for a moment while you are with your friends and family. Nearly half of all the men in your circle of friends are statistically likely to face cancer, most likely prostate cancer. Over a third of all the women you care about are at risk, mainly from breast cancer.
And yet, my impression is that cancer is rising but still affects only a relative few. That if we don't smoke and abstain from binge drinking our risk is very low. I'll bet that's your impression too.
But those numbers say our impressions are dead wrong.
I heard another set of numbers on the news as well. 70% of young men and women in Greece are unemployed - whether they have a college degree or not. The overall jobless rate exceeds 40%.
Take a moment to wrap you head around that. Now add on top of that unemployment, the austerity budget the Greek government had to adopt to get EU bailout money.
Now stop a moment and figure what the current odds are for a Greek man: about half are likely to be unemployed and doomed to face cancer too.
No wonder the news reports say the Greeks are depressed.
So why am I telling you about these depressing numbers? Am I depressed? Am I Greek? (No and No)
I give these numbers for your consideration, because they mean so much but we pay so little attention to them. They come at us in the news, fast but not furious, as if meant to draw us in but then allow us to easily forget and move on to lighter fare.
Let's try to remember the important numbers we hear in 2014. A lot may count on it.
Today I heard a couple of numbers that caught my attention:
45% of men will get cancer, and
35% of women will.
Think about that for a moment while you are with your friends and family. Nearly half of all the men in your circle of friends are statistically likely to face cancer, most likely prostate cancer. Over a third of all the women you care about are at risk, mainly from breast cancer.
And yet, my impression is that cancer is rising but still affects only a relative few. That if we don't smoke and abstain from binge drinking our risk is very low. I'll bet that's your impression too.
But those numbers say our impressions are dead wrong.
I heard another set of numbers on the news as well. 70% of young men and women in Greece are unemployed - whether they have a college degree or not. The overall jobless rate exceeds 40%.
Take a moment to wrap you head around that. Now add on top of that unemployment, the austerity budget the Greek government had to adopt to get EU bailout money.
Now stop a moment and figure what the current odds are for a Greek man: about half are likely to be unemployed and doomed to face cancer too.
No wonder the news reports say the Greeks are depressed.
So why am I telling you about these depressing numbers? Am I depressed? Am I Greek? (No and No)
I give these numbers for your consideration, because they mean so much but we pay so little attention to them. They come at us in the news, fast but not furious, as if meant to draw us in but then allow us to easily forget and move on to lighter fare.
Let's try to remember the important numbers we hear in 2014. A lot may count on it.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment