Listening to President Obama's press conference, the stat that 1 in 50 children are homeless was trotted out. I have to ask, has anyone questioned the validity of this? It would stand to reason that if 2 percent of children are homeless, that means at least 2 percent of adults are homeless, right? By my count, that means there are a minimum of 7.5 million homeless people in the US. I am sorry, but this does not pass the smell test. I remember these sorts of stats trotted out when I was in high school debate, and I remember that these were pretty easily debunked. Honestly, I don't have the numbers in front of me, but I am going to do some research on this. Like I said, that does not pass the smell test.
UPDATE: I watched the conference on CBS, and I wonder if anyone else noticed the way Katie Couric gushed at the conclusion of the press conference? "That's President Obama doing what he does sooo well, taking his case to the press and the American people." Folks, she...was....gushing!! To be fair, I bet Brian Williams and Charles Gibson gushed too, but I didn't hear them.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
it's TRUER THAN TRUE if you just change the DEFINITION of 'homelessness' - and it still packs the emotional punch of the original definition - DoublePlusGood, comrades!
here's the straight dope:
http://sistertoldjah.com/archives/2009/03/13/homeless-children-stats-grossly-inflated/
I'm not motivated enough to research it myself, but the article referenced in the comment above states:
"The remaining 1.17 million — those who are precariously housed or who may be doubled up with friends and relatives or paying extremely high proportions of their resources for rent — are not included in HUD’s report."
Not "homeless" as in "don't have a roof over their heads," but perhaps still homeless as in "this isn't really a home." Unfortunate with or without stretching the "homeless" definition.
But yeah. You can make stats say nearly anything you want them to say.
"Oh, people can come up with statistics to prove anything, Kent. 14% of people know that."
- Homer Simpson
I read the article, and the number of 330,000 sounds a lot more likely. Sure, it's a shame there are any homeless children, but trotting out 1 in 50 is patently false.
Post a Comment