It just sounds better

From an ad for my senator: "... We make more than a half million guitar strings a day ..."

They say "a half million". But I hear "uh half million" and it sounds so dumb.

Anyway, the units are not half-millions. The units are millions. So you don't say "a half million". You say "half a million". That way the units are right.

Besides it just sounds better:

"... We make more than half a million guitar strings a day ..."

Easy to fix

Reading How high debt leads to income inequality by Atif Mian and Amir Sufi. I thought I'd be interested in the economics. Instead I focus on this:

Money can’t make up for the loss of one’s home, but it ensures that a family can begin rebuilding their lives during such a desperate time.

"A family" is singular. "Their lives" is plural. How can I assume that Mian and Sufi's economic logic is sound when between the two authors they cannot tell one from more than one?

It's easy to fix. Just change "a family" to "families".

Economics is all about having the best story. Good stories need good sentences. Bad sentences are distracting.

Don't ask me why it's "economics is".

Heart and Mind

Sentences in development:

I'm something of a monetarist at heart. To my mind, even if monetary balances are not the cause of recessions, they must nonetheless be evidence.

That doesn't work. Maybe this:

I'm something of a monetarist at heart. Even if monetary balances are not the cause of recessions, they must nonetheless be evidence.

Moving on.