“average year of life in the developing world is no more than 3x lower”
I assume you mean “average year of life in the developing world is no less than one third as much”. I really don’t like the “X times lower” rather than “one Xth as much” construction, and I think this is an example of it being needlessly confusing; presumably, you were thinking “(no more than three) times lower”, but I first read it as “no more than (three times lower)”.
Why the downvotes for this? (Note: ThisSpaceAvailable is not the only person who initially misinterpreted JonahSinick’s “no more than 3x lower” construction in the same way; elharo did too, and was—I think—more offended than he need have been as a consequence.)
“average year of life in the developing world is no more than 3x lower”
I assume you mean “average year of life in the developing world is no less than one third as much”. I really don’t like the “X times lower” rather than “one Xth as much” construction, and I think this is an example of it being needlessly confusing; presumably, you were thinking “(no more than three) times lower”, but I first read it as “no more than (three times lower)”.
Why the downvotes for this? (Note: ThisSpaceAvailable is not the only person who initially misinterpreted JonahSinick’s “no more than 3x lower” construction in the same way; elharo did too, and was—I think—more offended than he need have been as a consequence.)