On Saturday, I saw this newspaper clip on the Forum section of Straits Times, where readers write in to comment on issues. I put a copy here, with my own underlined paragraph:

Click on it to enlarge. Taken from ST, 25/01/14 (my own underlined paragraph though)

The author wrote that "total expenditure for social development (...) increased by 54.5% - much faster than the 31.5% increase in tax revenue". I take issue with the fact that using percentages are highly misleading. The reason is that percentage calculations are relative, hence they are always based on something. If the basis of comparison between two computations of percentages are different, there's really nothing to compare. In other words, it could be misleading. Let me illustrate further. Suppose my salary is $3,000 and I spend $150 on food per month in January. Let's consider this statement: The amount that I ......