This is a great video by the EFF highlighting their upcoming Transparency in Government Project, which goes up September 1. The video highlights the worst offenders in our state legislature, in terms of the cost of proposed legislation. No bonus points for guessing which party most of them are in.
Posted by pudge at July 17, 2008 11:55 AM | Email ThisSecond of all, the should spell out the number on the spending. What is $143,000,000,000? Is that a billion or a trillion? It rolls by so fast . . . just spell it out: One hundred forty three billion. Easy to understand. No brain power needed.
Lots of research has been done on how people perceive large numbers. They tend to not even digest them when they do see them. There is nothing in their everyday life that they can relate them to.
The EFF videos I have seen have the same problem. They assume, for whatever reason, that the viewer is as hip as they are on the subject. You can't assume that. This isn't inside baseball, this is education and you have to reach people.