RANKINGS GONEWRONG
standard Consumer Reports has faced challenges to its testing and rankings over the years. Under the veneer of seemingly objective hard data, there’s enormous scope for subjectivity... and the methodology allows for plenty of wiggle room. Data in pure form loses its virginity when subject to analysis. And when advertisers jostle for screen or page space with rankings – after all, they’re a business, not a public service – lines are easily blurred. So it’s not surprising that when smart people who are less driven by capitalist concerns put together vitally important rankings... that doesn’t mean they’re any better. In fact, far from it. THE RANKING OF THEWORLD The Ease of Doing Business (EoDB) annual ranking of the business climate and suitability for investment of the economies of 190 countries was supposed to be different... It was a collection of data assembled by exceptionally smart people at the World Bank, the platinum-plated do-good multilateral financial institution that aims to boost economic growth and reduce poverty in developing countries. Until its recent demise (more on that soon), the EoDB survey was the Car and Driver 10 Best Cars and Trucks of wonky policy sets, the Condé Nast Traveler Gold List of the best hotels and resorts of the global investor. A foundational source of data and insight for policy makers, it also became shorthand for the ability of an economy to attract investment.
THE RANKINGS-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX Or you could use a tool specifically crafted for people with more curiosity than time or patience... a ranking about whatever it is you’re interested in, released by an apparently reputable organization that applies a (pseudo) scientific process to collect and digest data, and then spits out a pre-baked conclusion. Presto, research done... conclusion reached... and decision made. For example, there is Money magazine’s rankings of places to live in America, Consumer Reports ’ rankings of everything from rice cookers to SUVs to blood-glucose meters, and the Forbes list of rich people (you’re not buying them, but same idea). And then, of course, there’s the granddaddy of the rankings-industrial complex, U.S. News & World Report (which covers colleges, nursing homes, credit cards, diets, gastroenterology hospitals, mutual funds... and maybe even the dress shoes in your closet). Under the veneer of seemingly objective hard data, there’s enormous scope for subjectivity... and the methodology allows for plenty of wiggle room. We often take them at face value, but these kinds of rankings are imperfect at best. Is a little town in Minnesota really the best place in the U.S. to live, as Money contends? The U.S. News &World Report rankings are “ridiculous,” said the Washington Post in 2018. Gold
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October 2021
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