Comparing economic progress, or is it a joke?
I am reminded of a senior officer in the government who would ask all division heads to give total number of pending legal cases at the end of the month. The ones who could show none or just a few cases would be appreciated and those with a large number of pending cases would be publicly reprimanded. The irony was that the one with the largest pendency was the one who cleared the largest number of cases month after month. The second unlucky one was the one who had lesser number of cases but each was an extremely tricky case that took years to resolve. Coming to the economy. Politicians tout economic figures during their period, choosing the base year as it suits them, especially those of inflation. So, you could say, the price of a particular item, which was Rs. 35 a kilo in 2013 has gone up to Rs. 65 now, becoming double in six years. Your opponent might take the figure of even 2 years before when the price of this item might have been high for some days, at Rs. 50 and claim that