Down 600%? The Word \"Percent\" Has a Meaning (and It's Not That)
If you've ever won an argument because you knew the exact definition of a word, this story is for you. Because it turns out "percent" is just a word. And words mean things. Even when politicians say them very confidently.
A Quick Puzzle Before We Begin
A drug costs $100. The price goes up to $600. What's the percentage increase?
Take a second. We'll wait.
The answer is 500%. You gained $500 on a $100 base. Five times the base. Five hundred percent.
Now: that same drug drops from $600 back to $100. What's the percentage decrease?
Still waiting.
It's about 83.3%. You lost $500 on a $600 base. That's not "500% down." That's not "600% down." That's roughly 83 cents out of every dollar. Words have meanings. So do math words.
Why This Matters (And Why It's Actually Fascinating)
On April 22, Senator Elizabeth Warren questioned Robert F. Kennedy Jr. about claims President Trump had made regarding drug prices. Trump had claimed his actions would reduce drug prices by as much as 1500%. He later revised that figure to 600%.
RFK Jr. defended these percentage calculations from the Oval Office.
Trump also pitched a website called Trump Rx for Americans worried about healthcare costs.
Here's where the word nerd in you should perk up: a 600% price decrease is not mathematically possible in the way the word "decrease" works. If a drug costs $600 and you want a true negative 600% change, the new price would need to be negative $3,000. The drug would owe you money. Drug companies would be mailing you checks. This is not how pharmacies work.
Percent Is One of Those Words
You know how "literally" now also means "figuratively"? And "decimate" technically means to kill one in ten but everyone uses it to mean "devastate"? Percent is going through something similar, except the math doesn't bend the way definitions sometimes do.
"Per cent" means per hundred. Out of one hundred. The direction you're measuring matters completely. A 500% increase and an 83% decrease describe the same two-point journey. One goes left, one goes right. Calling either one "600%" isn't creative rounding. It's a different destination entirely.
A UC San Diego report on remedial math programs found that students struggle with exactly these kinds of basic percentage problems. This isn't a gotcha. Percentage change genuinely confuses people at every level. The difference is most of us aren't announcing our calculations from the Oval Office.
The Lesson (Yes, There's a Lesson)
Direction matters in percentages the same way it matters in words. "Flammable" and "inflammable" mean the same thing. "Cleave" means both to split and to cling together. English is wild and forgiving. Math is not.
If someone tells you prices dropped 600%, ask them: from what number, to what number, show your work. Same thing you'd do if someone told you "peruse" means to skim something. (It doesn't. Look it up.)
Precision is a pleasure. The exact word, the correct calculation, the right direction on the number line. That satisfaction when the pieces lock into place? That's why you're here.
Now go win at Scrabble.
Source: Languagelog