Uplifting Statistics!

This is just so cool! Take 4 minutes and watch how statistics can be turned into a graphic display that drives home a point in an elegant, fun to watch way!



Due to Blogger's limitations (or more likely my own design limitations), this isn't allowing me to hit the "full screen" button on the far right. To go to the youtube post directly, so you can see it full screen, click here.

Obviously, there are some statistical problems in the presentation. Number one is that dollars per year is hardly an accurate portrait of wealth. Over time, a dollar buys more or less, so someone making $20,000 a year would be far wealthier in 1950 than in 2010 and that same person would be considered much wealthier if he lived in say Cuba as opposed to Chicago. A better measure of "wealth" would be percentage of income that could be considered "disposable" (and there are arguements about what would be considered "disposable" income too) so that the graph would show someone who made $40,000 a year but spent $39,000 on food, shelter and medicine as being poorer than someone who made $4,000 a year but spent only $1,500 on those staples.

Further, the bottom axis is SEVERELY skewed, since the distance from $400 to $40,000 is only twice the distance from $400 to $4,000. It makes for a tighter but somewhat misleading representation.

Still damned cool thought!