Liberals Continue to Misinterpret Data (Part I)

I have blogged a lot about people in general being unable to analyze data properly and therefore yield false positives. In many respects people are only able to analyze at most 2 or 3 data points without using mathematical equations. Liberals are very good at the technique of evaluating the least amount of data as possible to defend their ideology. This past week was another perfect example of this type of behavior on display. Pew Research came out with a poll and the data indicated that women are top earners in 2 of every 5 (40%) families. Of course the headlines around the liberal media sphere read “US Women on the Rise as Breadwinners” – NY Times and many more like this.

I am going to point out how this statistic is misleading and the information to confirm this is in the same Pew Research Poll. But first I would like to point out that I am a big fan of data and statistics and secondly, I could care less if 100% of women are the breadwinners so long as our economy is a strong one.

The first glaring mistake made about the Pew data is liberals like to make everything a “war” or “battle” between genders and ethnicities; and that should not be the focus of anything in our world. This is an unfortunate result of progressivism that we cannot treat everyone as equals.

The second error is that this poll was conducted during a period of not only high unemployment, but at a time where the labor force has been reduced to 1970 levels. Also, it is important to note the median family income has declined to 2004 levels and there is a huge population of Americans who are underemployed – working part time. It is hard to say anyone is a winner in this economy, let alone women. Are we hailing women because their spouse was laid off and they were forced to take a part time job? This certainly may be the case for many in this poll.

The third dubious omission from many of these articles is that only 22.5% of married women are the breadwinners (pointed out in the same poll). To get to the 40% mark, the poll considers single parent families where women are the sole breadwinners. These numbers should be alarming to liberals, yet they praise them. What this says is that the number of female parent families is on the rise (it has doubled in the past half century). According to the 2010 census children without fathers are much more likely to grow up in poverty. While married couples with children enjoy an average income of $80,000, single mothers average only $24,000. Though poverty is the primary risk factor for fatherlessness, absenteeism among fathers has also been overwhelmingly a black problem, regardless of poverty status. The majority of black children nationwide – 54 percent – are being raised by single mothers. Only 12 percent of black families below the poverty line have both parents present, compared with 41 percent of poor Hispanic families and 32 percent of poor white families. Are we hailing women because they are divorced and living in poverty? It sure sounds like this is the true for a majority of single female parents in this poll. However, I do give women credit for being the responsible party to care for their children – in other words, I realize there are a lot of dead beat fathers out there who are not taking responsibility for their children. But, once again, these statistics should be alarming to liberals who say they advocate for women and minorities.