Language level

society, economics

An interesting article with an illustration that is a nice summary:

It starts off strong: what makes great writers great is their accessible use of language: it rarely exceeds the (anglosaxon) 10-grade level. The literature of economics and finance requires often a much better understanding of the language, and the article produces proof using a measure called the Flesch-Kincaid test. Sometimes this may be intentional: an issue is easily obfuscated for the less educated man if that suits the writer. It all couples back nicely to pretty much every single election in the Western hemisphere of the past years where ones level of education is the best predictor for ones vote.

The article ends with an appeal: it is vital to our democracies that this gap is not allowed to develop into a permanent rift. Inequality is rising and an important dividing line is education. Those less educated can’t be left behind.

The article.