The whole “actually the terms we’ve used throughout your life aren’t correct and we’re going to pretend there’s nothing unusual about this sudden reversal” is wildly damaging to institutional credibility.
I hold a BS in Econ and even I was shocked by how it was presented to the public. I figured there was a very good chance GDP would rebound for at least a quarter - and the political spin would be “Biden saves America from the Putin recession in record time” or something.
None of those talking heads had a single clue that the “two declining quarters” definition was simply a useful shorthand and yet they all immediately hopped on the exact same script.
Edit: in case it wasn’t clear, I 100% agree that we need more accurate definitions. So much needless harm is being done when the response to edge cases falling outside the colloquial understanding of a term is to quietly change dictionary definitions instead of educating the population.
How do you plan to educate the population about the technical definitions of non-trivial technical concepts - when I can make money/fame/political capital from diseducating them, by providing with simple, convenient, inflammatory, and wrong information?
If your bar for solving a political problem is 'We must first make sure everyone speaks about it the way I want them to speak', you're never going to get there. In a union of ignorance and malice, it's very easy for thought leaders to deliberately misframe speech, as they are the ones who determine both what we are allowed to talk about, and how we are allowed to talk about it.
I hold a BS in Econ and even I was shocked by how it was presented to the public. I figured there was a very good chance GDP would rebound for at least a quarter - and the political spin would be “Biden saves America from the Putin recession in record time” or something.
None of those talking heads had a single clue that the “two declining quarters” definition was simply a useful shorthand and yet they all immediately hopped on the exact same script.
Edit: in case it wasn’t clear, I 100% agree that we need more accurate definitions. So much needless harm is being done when the response to edge cases falling outside the colloquial understanding of a term is to quietly change dictionary definitions instead of educating the population.