Cornell West and his new math?

[AZRedhawk44]

Can anyone translate this for me, please?

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2011/11/28/cornel_west_ultimate_fight_for_entitlements_will_be_in_the_streets.html

"I think the problem is that the poor children, keep in mind it's 42% of poor children who live at or near poverty, it's 25% in poverty. Our audience needs to keep that in mind." Cornel West said on MSNBC this afternoon.

85% of statistics are made up right on the spot.

It works right the first time, 90% of the time.

Lies, damned lies, and statistics.


I can't make heads or tails from his compounded percentages above.

And if I could... I still don't really care.  I was one of those kids in "poverty" when I was little.  American kids in "poverty" still have it pretty good as long as they have reasonably responsible parents.

As far as I can tell, this idgit is agitating for violence in the streets to get sympathy money for another LBJ War on Poverty (which has already been institutionalized and manifested in WIC, SCHIP, Medicare, HUD, Dept of Ed, and dozens of other programs that haven't gone away or ever even been reduced).

[Tallpine]

Ninety-five percent of it is half-mental 

[HankB]

42% at or near poverty
25% in poverty
Subtract 25% (those in poverty) from 42% (at or near poverty) to get 17% - those near poverty but not actually in it.

Anyway, I think this fool wants MORE welfare giveaways - until recently, the cumulative totals we as a nation spent on various "Great Society" giveaways was mighty close to the national debt. And if you count the TARP/stimulus/bailouts as an extension of those giveaways, the cumulative total is still pretty close.

[longeyes]

A word for the professor: don't have kids you can't afford.  Good way to avoid poor kids.

[griz]

I think he meant that 42% of all US children live at or near poverty.  He probably just parrots the same stats so often that he developed a verbal shorthand for spouting the numbers.

Anyway, soon enough we will redefine poverty to mean everybody except the rich bastards in the top 1% who aren't paying their fair share and made their vast fortunes off the backs of us poor 99%.......... etc, etc.

[MechAg94]

Yeah, "42% of poor children" sort of throws you off.  I thought a good definition of poor would be poverty, at least the way we define it.  On the other hand, since most children themselves do not have any money or income, they are all poor.