City Libraries, City of Gold Coast

Counting, how we use numbers to decide what matters, Deborah Stone

eng

Includes bibliographical references and index

illustrations

index present

non fiction

Counting

bibliography

Deborah Stone

how we use numbers to decide what matters

"We all know statistics can lie, but it takes an eminent political scientist to explain why even basic counting can't be objective. With the help of Dr. Seuss and Cookie Monster, Deborah Stone shows that how we count depends on what we believe is important. Whether we're counting Covid deaths or more nebulous notions such as poverty, inequality, or how much kids learn in school, we first have to decide who or what should be included in our tally. Every number is the sum of human judgements. In a nation whose Constitution originally counted a slave as three-fifths of a person and where algorithms disproportionately consign Black and Hispanic Americans to prison, it is now more important than ever to understand how numbers can be both weapons of the powerful and tools of resistance. With her 'signature brilliance' (Robert Kuttne, Stone shows 'how being in thrall to numbers is misguided and dangerous' (New York Times Book Review)." -- back cover

Prologue: Of two minds -- There's no such thing as a raw number -- How a number comes to be -- How we know what a number means -- How numbers get their clout -- How counting changes hearts and minds -- The ethics of counting -- Epilogue: Counting goes viral