As we noted below, the word "investment" is beginning to be troublesome.
It's bad enough that our Dimowit, DarthDoyle, uses the term as (not-too) Secret Code for "SPENDING."
But when the Milwaukee JS reporter (could be either Walters or Forster) uses the same word in reporting on the address, without quotation marks, or even semi-quotes, ...shall we call it inaccurate? Are they using Doyle's linguistic linguini to make it All Better? Or is this 'reality-reporting'?
He will also encourage campuses to develop greater specialization. For example, at UW-Milwaukee, which has sought $10 million for its research agenda, Doyle called for greater investment to attract top experts to the school and allow for more partnerships with the private sector.
In fact, Darth wants to SPEND $10MM (or a big chunk thereof) on UW-M's research program proposal.
Shall we call a spade a spade in news coverage?
Sadly this continues the rampant abuse we see in private society. We invest in cars and homes. We invest in a degree. We 'invest' in a stock hoping the price will go up, so that when we sell we will have more money. Heck, we even invest in our health by jogging. Generally an investment has come to mean anything anything we spend more than $10,000. R&D is typically called an investment even though it is just an expense.
ReplyDeleteI liked the good old days. Back then an investment was the purchase of an asset to produce an income stream. Buying a good, improving it, and selling it was called speculation when done in isolation or (re)manufacturing(in homes, remodeling) when done in aggregate.