“Data drives out speculation.” — Ron Gruner
No ... it is RELIABLE data that drives out speculation. The recent controversy surrounding a citizenship question on the 2020 census highlights a very important issue ... are statistics being quoted that are accurate? Do we have 11 million illegal immigrants? 20 million? 30 million? Or even more? How can we make rational resource-allocation decisions without rational data? Clearly, governments are sometimes driven by political reasons to fudge statistics to their benefit of those in power. This is the most dangerous form of lying ... in that resources are misallocated to the detriment of all.
One of the most sacred duties of government, other than protecting its people, it to strive for accurate and apolitical statistics ... which could be argued is a integral piece of its citizen protection mandate. Those public servants who are trying to “adjust” reality for political benefit are as insidious and unpatriotic as those who would undermine our protective services and military.
And interestingly, they are often the same scoundrels.
4 comments:
Does the citizenship question prevent false answers? Unless verifiable documemnts (passport, etc.) are presented, you could just say YES.
Yes, a citizenship question will likely return skewed results ... but it is better than no results.
Skewed results take you back to unreliable data.
There is seldom perfect data. But data collected with a rigorous process is better than guessing for the numbers.
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