Friday, January 16, 2009

Alternative Shapes

(Update. Commenter RDF points out that these graphs mean nothing for those who don't have the context. And I plead guilty. Some of my posts here are just prep pieces for longer work over at Angry Bear. For example these graphs were incorporated into Social Security: Goldilocks Curves, Not Too Hot, Not Too Cold. And for the record the 2004 and 2007 curves were originally reversed, something I fixed Jan 18.)
1997 II.F6

2000 II.F6

2004 II.D7

2007 II.D7


2008 II.D6

3 comments:

Robert D Feinman said...

I've been pimping your site elsewhere, but I see that you have gotten a bit terse in some of your postings (like this one).

If new visitors arrive they aren't going to be able to make much sense of these graphs where the the curves aren't explained.

I'd suggest a bit of editorial housekeeping. One way would be to put some text with simple postings like this explaining the charts. This is time consuming and, perhaps repetitive, but framing is necessary for newcomers.

Another approach might be to put up a FAQ or similar which you could cite to provide the background. If it were in sections that a direct link to the appropriate section would be simple.

Another option would be to take some comprehensive postings and highlight them in a side bar so that people can get up to speed quickly. They also would prove useful for those who want to cite them on other forums.

The two below reviewing Dean Baker's efforts are ones that could be quickly adapted for this purpose. They cover all the major themes the the right keeps bringing up.

Only your longtime followers understand the context, you need to provide for everyone. Difficult, but educating the public is the underlying motivation, isn't it?

Bruce Webb said...

Robert. Please don't pimp the BruceWeb. As you note it is mostly a place to store snippets before they get incorporated into larger pieces over at Angry Bear. For example these graphs ended up in my piece
http://angrybear.blogspot.com/2009/01/social-security-goldilocks-curves-not.html

I'll take your advice and try to update the pieces here to point to the posts there but really the place to send people is Angry Bear directly. Most of my Social Security content is not even reflected over at this site.

Robert D Feinman said...

OK, but then you need to put a pointer to Angry Bear in a prominent spot on this site.

A search on your name comes up with this site first.