Interesting read on Government Statistics

Warning - 8 page PDF

[link|http://www.weedenco.com/welling/Downloads/2006/0804welling022106.pdf|http://www.weedenco....welling022106.pdf]

Shadowing Reality
Economist Keeps Tabs On Government\ufffds \ufffdCreative\ufffd Statistical Reports

[...]

"What they did was redefine \ufffdunemployment.\ufffd They created
a category of unemployed called \ufffddiscouraged
workers.\ufffd If you were unemployed and you\ufffdd given up
looking because there was no work to be had, you were
counted as a discouraged worker\ufffdbut taken out of the
unemployment count. They still counted you, at least,
until the Bill Clinton Administration, when they said,
\ufffdWell, we really need to define discouraged workers\ufffdso
if anyone has been discouraged for more than a year,
we\ufffdre just going to take them out of all the numbers,
take them out of the workforce completely\ufffd. In doing
so, they knocked about 5 million unemployed out of the
broader measures of unemployment. Today there are
seven or eight unemployment measures that are published
each month. The one they call U-3 is the popularly
followed one. The broadest one right now is U-6,
which is running up around 9%. But, as I mentioned, if
you take out all the funny games that they\ufffdve played with
it, unemployment is really up around 12%."

Quite a bit more in the paper....

Darrell Spice, Jr. Trendy yet complex\nPeople seek me out - though they're not sure why\n[link|http://spiceware.org/gallery/ArtisticOverpass|Artistic Overpass] [link|http://www.spiceware.org/|SpiceWare]

Post #250,301 by dmcarls 3/31/06 10:59:38 AM Reply	Interesting read on Government Statistics Warning - 8 page PDF [link\|http://www.weedenco.com/welling/Downloads/2006/0804welling022106.pdf\|http://www.weedenco....welling022106.pdf] Shadowing Reality Economist Keeps Tabs On Government\ufffds \ufffdCreative\ufffd Statistical Reports [...] "What they did was redefine \ufffdunemployment.\ufffd They created a category of unemployed called \ufffddiscouraged workers.\ufffd If you were unemployed and you\ufffdd given up looking because there was no work to be had, you were counted as a discouraged worker\ufffdbut taken out of the unemployment count. They still counted you, at least, until the Bill Clinton Administration, when they said, \ufffdWell, we really need to define discouraged workers\ufffdso if anyone has been discouraged for more than a year, we\ufffdre just going to take them out of all the numbers, take them out of the workforce completely\ufffd. In doing so, they knocked about 5 million unemployed out of the broader measures of unemployment. Today there are seven or eight unemployment measures that are published each month. The one they call U-3 is the popularly followed one. The broadest one right now is U-6, which is running up around 9%. But, as I mentioned, if you take out all the funny games that they\ufffdve played with it, unemployment is really up around 12%." Quite a bit more in the paper....
Post #250,340 by lincoln 3/31/06 2:36:09 PM Reply	That's an incredible article how in the world did you ever find it? lincoln "Chicago to my mind was the only place to be. ... I above all liked the city because it was filled with people all a-bustle, and the clatter of hooves and carriages, and with delivery wagons and drays and peddlers and the boom and clank of freight trains. And when those black clouds came sailing in from the west, pouring thunderstorms upon us so that you couldn't hear the cries or curses of humankind, I liked that best of all. Chicago could stand up to the worst God had to offer. I understood why it was built--a place for trade, of course, with railroads and ships and so on, but mostly to give all of us a magnitude of defiance that is not provided by one house on the plains. And the plains is where those storms come from." -- E.L. Doctorow Never apply a Star Trek solution to a Babylon 5 problem. I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a *Citizen* of the United States. [link\|mailto:bconnors@ev1.net\|contact me]
Post #250,346 by inthane-chan 3/31/06 2:53:33 PM Reply	Was linked here earlier IIRC. When somebody asks you to trade your freedoms for security, it isn't your* security they're talking about.*
Post #250,347 by dmcarls 3/31/06 3:04:14 PM Reply	It may have been linked. Apologies.
Post #250,349 by inthane-chan 3/31/06 3:06:05 PM Reply	Don't apologize - it's still good reading. I don't know where I'd heard about this kind of stuff before, but I know I've been hearing it for a LONG time - I know there was a spot of noise about it in the late '90s, when the economy was supposedly booming and the "common man" wasn't seeing a whole lot of it. Of course, those years are positively halcyon compared to what we have today... When somebody asks you to trade your freedoms for security, it isn't your* security they're talking about.*
Post #250,351 by dmcarls 3/31/06 3:21:08 PM Reply	Don't recall exactly, it was buried in the haloscan comments on one of the Economics Blogs. If I run across it again, I'll post it. Speaking of finding stuff, has anyone tried the Firefox extension called "How did I Get Here"? (I'm not on FF 1.5 yet, so I can't use it). Comments are appreciated.
Post #250,355 by SpiceWare 3/31/06 3:44:52 PM Reply	Is that the extension that shows a picture of your parents? Darrell Spice, Jr. Trendy yet complex\nPeople seek me out - though they're not sure why\n[link\|http://spiceware.org/gallery/ArtisticOverpass\|Artistic Overpass] [link\|http://www.spiceware.org/\|SpiceWare]
Post #250,360 by dmcarls 3/31/06 4:01:08 PM Reply	Ha! Maybe a picture of M. Behe (author: Intelligent Design) Thanks for the chuckle.

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