Do These Magic Numbers Really Rule Our Lives? the Chancellor Made a Big Point of the Importance of an 80/20 Split in His Emergency Budget Speech This Week. Harry Mount Looks Behind the Theory to Find Why This Ratio Is Thought So Central to Modern Existence

Byline: Harry Mount

GEORGE OSBORNE was a history scholar at Oxford, or a Demy as they call them at Magdalen College -- where scholars are allowed to wear longer gowns and dine once a year on the venison sourced from the college's deer park.

Going on his Emergency Budget performance this week, he's also become a bit of an economist. At the heart of his Budget, he said, was the 80/20 split -- the colossal national debt would be paid off by a combination of 80 per cent in spending cuts, and 20 per cent in tax rises.

David Cameron has also stressed the importance of these magic numbers. "The international evidence shows that the 80-20 split is about the right proportion," Cameron told the Today programme.

Both men, it appears, are aware of quite how important the 80/20 split has become in economic theory, and in the world around us, too.

Over and over again, the same split crops up. BAA operates an 80/20 rule at Heathrow -- if an airline does not use a take-off and landing slot for 80 per cent of the time, it loses the slot.

Even commuting is affected by the split. For a journey to be efficient, you should ensure a 80/20 division …

Questia, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning. www.questia.com
Publication information: Article title: Do These Magic Numbers Really Rule Our Lives? the Chancellor Made a Big Point of the Importance of an 80/20 Split in His Emergency Budget Speech This Week. Harry Mount Looks Behind the Theory to Find Why This Ratio Is Thought So Central to Modern Existence. Contributors: Not available. Newspaper title: The Evening Standard (London, England). Publication date: June 25, 2010. Page number: 22. © Not available. COPYRIGHT 2010 Gale Group.

This material is protected by copyright and, with the exception of fair use, may not be further copied, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means.