From: Michael M. Butler (butler@comp-lib.org)
Date: Tue Jan 01 2002 - 21:46:27 MST
Kai Becker wrote:
> Ah, I see. This would mean, that US americans are about four times more
> violent and potential criminals than citizens of other western countries.
If you mean that "every US american individual is 4x as likely
to commit a crime as any [european] individual",
no, that is not what it means.
That is an assumption of uniformity in the population you make, a common
thinking error when dealing quickly with per capita numbers.
It could just as easily mean that US americans include a population of career
criminals who commit 400 times the number of crimes as the euro per capita number,
but constitute only 1 percent of the population. Or any other similar such calculation.
--
MMB<==butler a t comp - lib . o r g Wm. Burroughs said it best: "After a shooting
spree, they always want to take the guns away from the people who didn't do it."
I am not here to have an argument. I am here as part of a civilization... And you?
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