![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Commentary: Someone elsewhere commented that this needs to be a log scale, and is meaningless if it's not in adjusted dollars.
I disagree. Adjusted dollars or not, anyone can see that this is blip, blip, blip, blip, blip, HOLY FUCK. Sure, the dollar has tanked. But it hasn't tanked THAT much. The dollar's lost maybe half its 1985 value, not 98% of it, which is the sort of depreciation that would be required to bring that vertical spike into scale with the other blips.
As for a log scale? On a graph like this, the only thing a log scale would serve is to hide the data and make it look much, much less significant. Most people do not think in terms of log scales (hell, most people don't understand what a log scale is). If you're releasing log-scaled graphs for the public at large, you're doing it to mislead them and make the spikes look as much smaller as you can get away with.
no subject
no subject
no subject
is GNP this year 50 times what it was last year?