NewsLanc does not often critically comment on Letters to us or to the newspapers because we believe the public should have outlets to express their views so long as they are not unfair to others, even if their views seem to lack credence. But when a representative of Franklin & Marshall College writes a letter to the Intelligencer New Era entitled “Turning things around in city’s southeast” and mishandles statistical information in a manner that might cause a freshman to fail an exam, we feel we should speak out.
Antonio Callari, Director of Franklin & Marshall Local Economy Center, makes two statements of dubious accuracy, although we cannot be sure because he fails to define what his figures are measuring. He states that Southeast “area residents lose some $19 million annually to absentee landlords” and later “…an opportunity for policies aimed at capturing that annual loss of wealth…”
We would assume, but cannot know for sure, that the $19 million figure is the amount of gross rental paid to landlords. If so, it is fallacious to describe it as a total loss since the landlord pays the real estate taxes, sometimes utilities, maintenance and interest on the investment. Even if the landlord gets to keep 25% of the rental in profits, we are talking about less than $5 million in “loss of wealth.”
Academics or those representing prestigious colleges should know better. Unfortunately, Callari may have been less influenced by F&M’s economic department than its often disingenuous president John Fry, the product of a business school education and, we believe, a master of subterfuge and more reminiscent of a “robber baron” than a college president.
