THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, April 23, 1995 TAG: 9504210039
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J4 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Short : 32 lines
To understand why politicians lie, read staff writer Stephanie Stoughton's story on the front of the Daily Break section this past Thursday.
It is about dress sizes. What we now call a size 8 was a size 12 until about seven years ago, according to William Rankin of Dress Rite Forms, a company that molds dummies for designers and manufacturers.
Today's dress sizes are lies because a dress whose size told the truth would no longer sell. For when a customer can choose between two dresses that fit the same, the one marked size 8 is more appealing than the one marked size 10. The size 8 says to the customer, ``My, but you're petite.'' The size 10 asks, ``What did you have for lunch?''
It seems likely that the lies will grow larger, as long as they work. If the same dress that now is called a size 8 were marked a size 6, more sales might be gained. Twenty or so years from now we may need negative sizes, a minus 6 being smaller than a minus 4.
In short, politicians lie for the same reason dress sizes lie: The lies work. And they will be told as long as they work.
Size 8 sounds better than size 10. ``If elected I'll cut taxes and balance the budget'' sounds better than ``We must share the fiscal pain.'' by CNB