Here’s a quotation from a CBC piece: “A separate study released Jan. 9 by the Pew Research Center found that about 80 per cent of 18- to 25-year-old Americans saw getting rich as their prime life goal.”
That sounds like 80 per cent of 18- to 25-year-old Americans merit contempt. The Pew study, however, asked survey participants to report about other people in their age range. That is, 80 (actually, 81) per cent of respondents agreed to this claim: Getting rich is the most important goal in life of their generation. That’s very different from 80 per cent agreeing to this claim: Getting rich is the most important goal in life for me.
Moral of the story: when journalists report something interesting … go read the actual study.
– Sydney
Alan Schmierer