I?m guessing most people who heard about the study last week showing UW-Madison generates some $12.4 billion in state economic activity and supports 128,146 jobs annually didn?t exactly smack their foreheads in surprise. Likewise, they probably wouldn?t have done any head-smacking if the numbers were $5 billion or $20 billion, or if the (surprisingly specific) jobs numbers had been a few thousand higher or lower. Massive numbers about huge institutions and the complicated means by which they are arrived at tend to produce a numbing effect on the human brain.
Office of Strategic Communication