Friday, January 28, 2005
The New York Times > Opinion > Op-Ed Columnist: Little Black Lies
My first reaction was " Dems don't like it when Republicans play the race card because that trick is the sole provence of Democrats." (See claims of disenfranchisement.)
Using the life expectancy rate is misleading for the reason Mr. Krugman points out - mortality changes depending on where one begins. From birth, it is one figure (a lower one in this case), but from a different age (65 here), it is different.
Unfortunately, OLS' ideaology afflicts his criticism. Black men can expect to live 14.6 years once they reach retirement. White men can expect 16.6 years - two full years more! Or 13.7% longer!
When one only deals with 16.5 units, 2 full units discrepency is a lot!
My first reaction was " Dems don't like it when Republicans play the race card because that trick is the sole provence of Democrats." (See claims of disenfranchisement.)
Using the life expectancy rate is misleading for the reason Mr. Krugman points out - mortality changes depending on where one begins. From birth, it is one figure (a lower one in this case), but from a different age (65 here), it is different.
Unfortunately, OLS' ideaology afflicts his criticism. Black men can expect to live 14.6 years once they reach retirement. White men can expect 16.6 years - two full years more! Or 13.7% longer!
When one only deals with 16.5 units, 2 full units discrepency is a lot!
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