How high are you setting the bar on "numerate person"?
People make terrible choices all the time despite knowing and understanding all sorts of things (math, health risks, harm they may cause themselves or others) because they have emotions and because weakness of will is a real phenomenon. You seem to be completely discounting all other considerations except "understanding the numbers".
I edited this about twenty times. I suspect we have radically different views of human psychology and how knowledge affects choice. Might be interesting to discuss over a beer, but here only a distraction from the larger issue in the article. Apologies.
People make terrible choices all the time despite knowing and understanding all sorts of things (math, health risks, harm they may cause themselves or others) because they have emotions and because weakness of will is a real phenomenon. You seem to be completely discounting all other considerations except "understanding the numbers".
I edited this about twenty times. I suspect we have radically different views of human psychology and how knowledge affects choice. Might be interesting to discuss over a beer, but here only a distraction from the larger issue in the article. Apologies.