Wednesday, February 4, 2015

Lies, D*mn Lies, and Statistics

The SCOAMT has been bragging about his economic numbers since before the SOTU.  We were told that the economy grew at a 5% rate last year.  We’re regaled with stories about the improving job numbers.  Gas prices are down!

One of those is true.  For the moment.

Shortly after the State of the Union, those numbers were revised.  Whoops, not 5% growth in Q4.  Try about half that.

And then there are the jobs numbers.  Anyone paying attention knows that the numbers aren’t as rosy as the SCOAMT would have you believe.  Now the CEO of Gallup- the poling organization- has written an editorial calling the number a lie.

There's no other way to say this. The official unemployment rate, which cruelly overlooks the suffering of the long-term and often permanently unemployed as well as the depressingly underemployed, amounts to a Big Lie.

And it's a lie that has consequences, because the great American dream is to have a good job, and in recent years, America has failed to deliver that dream more than it has at any time in recent memory. A good job is an individual's primary identity, their very self-worth, their dignity -- it establishes the relationship they have with their friends, community and country. When we fail to deliver a good job that fits a citizen's talents, training and experience, we are failing the great American dream.

Read, as they say, the whole thing.

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