If we had them working, for example, in a hospital oncology unit, that would be more effective. People would be safer, for example, if they could better calculate risk. Hofstadter teaches kids about big numbers with packages of pasta, rice and sugar. You just say number of digits or zeroes. You don't have to scare anybody away.
Recent news offers more evidence of innumeracy.
He interpeted that to support his position against a recount. Yet, Paulos and others also believe that the Democrats used bad math when they sought a limited recount. After the election, Democratic lawyers asked for recounts in only a few counties, even though the entire state should have been involved for a statistically sound result. In the end, the courts decided for legal, not mathematical, reasons that a full recount of undervotes was the only fair approach. But time had run out.