Confusion over the basic measures of central tendency is not unheard of in (intellectually) high places, as well as political ones: here is Bertrand Russell:
“... the average, by definition, lies half-way between the best and the worst ... ” (Russell 1896: 19, footnote).
Bertrand Russell (1896/1965) "German Social Democracy", George Allen and Unwin, Woking and London
Although his empirical description of the party and its doings has its strengths (he notices that its practice was already reformist, despite the revolutionary rhetoric), the great man's self-assured aversion to dialectics leads him to dispense with the effort of engaging with its practitioners.
He sums up Capital as “tedious economico-Hegelian pedantry” (1896: 10), and opines that “the two later volumes add little to Marx’s system” (1896: 15, footnote); whatever one thinks of the work as a whole, few professional economists with any knowledge of the text would agree to the latter judgement.
Julian Wells
Dr Julian Wells
Acting Director of Studies
School of Economics
staff web-page: http://fass.kingston.ac.uk/staff/cv.php?staffnum=287
personal web-site: http://staffnet.kingston.ac.uk/~ku32530
Senior lecturer in economics
School of Economics
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
Kingston University
Penrhyn Road
Kingston-upon-Thames
KT1 2EE
United Kingdom
+44 (0)20 8417 2285
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From: email list for Radical Statistics [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Martin Rathfelder [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 09 June 2010 09:13
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [RADSTATS] A new approach to the median
There are very few people in the UK who suffer from absolute poverty.
Mostly failed asylum seekers who are subject to an official destitution
policy - and won't appear on any statistics. Some people with mental
illness.
Most of the poor in the UK have a colour TV. Quite a few are
overweight. They probably have debts. People who are absolutely poor
don't have debts.
Yes relative poverty is a political issue. But it is a problem about
the rich.
Martin Rathfelder
Director
Socialist Health Association
22 Blair Road
Manchester
M16 8NS
0161 286 1926
www.sochealth.co.uk
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John Whittington wrote:
> At 08:09 09/06/2010 +0100, Martin Rathfelder wrote:
>> If the problems of poverty in the UK are about relative poverty, why
>> will reducing the incomes of the rich not help?
>
> That surely hits the nail on the head. IF the problems were about
> relative poverty, then that would, indeed, be the obvious solution.
>
> However, relative poverty (within a country) is really essentially a
> political/ psychological issue ('sour grapes'), not a humanitarian one
> - e.g.a person who can't afford to feed their children properly
> feeling aggrieved because others were in a much better position.
> Maybe their psychology would feel a bit better if one changed the
> situation such that no-one else could feed their children properly,
> either, but that's hardly a solution - and wouldn't result in an
> improvement in their children's nutrition!
>
> At the most basic level (virtually 'human rights' - access to adequate
> food, shelter, healthcare, protection, education etc.), the poverty
> that matters is surely absolute, not relative?
>
> Kind Regards,
>
>
> John
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------
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