However many industries fudge numbers--lie with statistics--far more fudge logic–-mislead with false reasoning. Taking the example of smoking in Nazi Germany, Robert N. Proctor illustrates one of the forms of false reasoning:
When Raymond Pearl showed that smokers shorten their lives, for example, German industrialists asked how it could be that people living where lots of cigarettes were smoked tended to live longer than people in poorer parts of the world where fewer cigarettes were smoked. The puzzle should have taken about five seconds to solve, since it is based on a simple flaw. People in richer parts of the world tend to live longer for many reasons-–foremost among these being that they are far more likely to survive infancy, childhood diseases, and childbirth. Rich people had (and still have) better access to clean water, clean jobs, and quality health care. It also happens to be true–-or at least used to be true–-that the rich were more likely to smoke. People in wealthier parts of the world therefore live longer, despite also smoking more. Studies like Pearl’s made it clear, though, that people in developed countries would live even longer if they didn’t smoke. Apologists for the industry either failed to grasp, or refused to admit, such facts well into the 1990s.
(Quoted from page 167 Golden Holocaust: Origins of the Cigarette Catastrophe and the Case of Abolition, by Robert N. Proctor. University of California Press, 2011.)
For Robert N. Proctor home page, click here. For images of or relating to Robert N. Proctor, click here.
When Raymond Pearl showed that smokers shorten their lives, for example, German industrialists asked how it could be that people living where lots of cigarettes were smoked tended to live longer than people in poorer parts of the world where fewer cigarettes were smoked. The puzzle should have taken about five seconds to solve, since it is based on a simple flaw. People in richer parts of the world tend to live longer for many reasons-–foremost among these being that they are far more likely to survive infancy, childhood diseases, and childbirth. Rich people had (and still have) better access to clean water, clean jobs, and quality health care. It also happens to be true–-or at least used to be true–-that the rich were more likely to smoke. People in wealthier parts of the world therefore live longer, despite also smoking more. Studies like Pearl’s made it clear, though, that people in developed countries would live even longer if they didn’t smoke. Apologists for the industry either failed to grasp, or refused to admit, such facts well into the 1990s.
(Quoted from page 167 Golden Holocaust: Origins of the Cigarette Catastrophe and the Case of Abolition, by Robert N. Proctor. University of California Press, 2011.)
For Robert N. Proctor home page, click here. For images of or relating to Robert N. Proctor, click here.
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