CDZ We need fewer opportunities for obfuscation, not more

[320 Years of History]

The U.S. government does a whole lot of stuff, and one of those things is collect data and publish it. Indeed, one of the gov't entities that collects data is the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Among other things, it is the gov't entity that published:

• mass layoff statistics
• international labor comparisons
• quarterly census of employment and wages

So what did the 2014 Congress do? They withdrew funding that resulted in the publication of those three data sets of data being eliminated or cut back. To the best of my knowledge, and in fairness, the quarterly census of employment and wages was modified not eliminated: it's data collection frequency has been curtailed and its scope is narrower.

Now in terms of money and in the scheme of gov't coffers, it's not much saved, about $40M. (To put that in perspective, 45K Americans have $50M+ net worth; ~15M Americans have $1M+ net worth. One million squared equals one trillion. ) In terms of information that is readily available, well, it's less information. In this age, the information age, what's the point of that? Nevermind that far too few people avail themselves of the vast quantity of objective information available. Without the information, we just open ourselves up to even more politicians -- either side of the aisle -- making claims that can't be confirmed or refuted, at least not on any objective basis. Do we really need more of that?

 

[oldsoul]

The U.S. government does a whole lot of stuff, and one of those things is collect data and publish it. Indeed, one of the gov't entities that collects data is the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Among other things, it is the gov't entity that published:

• mass layoff statistics
• international labor comparisons
• quarterly census of employment and wages

So what did the 2014 Congress do? They withdrew funding that resulted in the publication of those three data sets of data being eliminated or cut back. To the best of my knowledge, and in fairness, the quarterly census of employment and wages was modified not eliminated: it's data collection frequency has been curtailed and its scope is narrower.

Now in terms of money and in the scheme of gov't coffers, it's not much saved, about $40M. (To put that in perspective, 45K Americans have $50M+ net worth; ~15M Americans have $1M+ net worth. One million squared equals one trillion. ) In terms of information that is readily available, well, it's less information. In this age, the information age, what's the point of that? Nevermind that far too few people avail themselves of the vast quantity of objective information available. Without the information, we just open ourselves up to even more politicians -- either side of the aisle -- making claims that can't be confirmed or refuted, at least not on any objective basis. Do we really need more of that?

No, wasted "cut-back". We need this information to make informed decisions. Money should have been cut else where. Foolish to be kind.