Peter

I sort of see what you are saying, but in both of the above scenarios you are surely saying that there was not enough information available – right?

Peter

Looking for the truth in numbers and records is very subjective, and people will only “see” what suits them.

For example, if you were to look at my bank account then you would see around 2004 that my sister wired me money. So most would assume one of two scenarios depending upon personal prejudices (1) either she gave it to me or (2)owed it to me. Actually, neither scenario is correct it so happens that my mother was returning money I had given her from a job I held before returning to study. Only her bank wasn’t capable of doing the transfer.

Here’s another scenario, again from a true story. If you were to look at daughter and mother’s credit history and see that the mother went bankrupt with high credit card bills while the daughter didn’t have much in the way of credit card transactions until she was much older and could afford it, then it might be natural to assume that the daughter was made of more responsible stuff than the mother, very disciplined mature ect… But if you were to ask around then you might find that the daughter lived a very extravagant life and used her parent’s money and cards to finance this, and this contributed (leather furniture ect…) to the mother’s credit card bills.

So although numbers on paper are indisputable, their interpretations depend upon the prejudices of the reader, making the whole task as subjective as judging artwork.

Peter