they are both a catastrophe, i never implied that inconsistency is not one. i'm merely involved in semantic bickering here :) both are bad in their own way, but which is worse will depend on the case. bear in mind that programmers make mistakes all the time. they can also cause such effects. which is why we often do things in a way where incorrect data can be corrected later. particularly in anything related to accounting, where the practice has existed for centuries. i'm really not interested in claiming that one catastrophe is better than the other, but a data corruption in a database can sometimes be more problematic.
edit - sorry, i just noticed i actually did say, in another thread here, that corruption is worse. i would like to take that back now :D
I honestly don't understand how this is even a live issue for debate. The "inconsistency" we're talking about is terrifying.