Saturday, December 18, 2010

Make the Pie Higher

A mesmerizing data visualization about the correlation of income and longevity in countries around the world over the last 200 years, via Mark Gisleson's Norwegianity:


As Mark notes, the rosy ending is a bit hard to believe. How many planets does this guy think we have to sustain 7 billion people in the manner to which some of us have become accustomed? (As George Orwell wrote in his essay on Rudyard Kipling, "We all live by robbing Asiatic coolies, and those of us who are ‘enlightened’ all maintain that those coolies ought to be set free; but our standard of living, and hence our ‘enlightenment’, demands that the robbery shall continue." Discomfiting word choices, but the thought is all too true.)

But the video is a fascinating way of showing what's been happening for the past two centuries, nonetheless.

________

The title of this piece refers to a turn of phrase uttered by former President George W. Bush.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Optimism aside, it is a remarkable work of communication. I'm glad he slowed the pace of presentation during the flu pandemic. Thank you for this.

Geo said...

coool!

Carmella's Boy#2

Susan Nagel said...

I love this guy! He is like a David Attenborough for statistics. No one gets as excited about my graphs at work as I do -- but now I can have a muse.