5 ms·

Destroying agencies that collect statistics is a "feature", not a bug. Why deal with unemployment, declining GDP, etc when you can just shut down the agency fi

Destroying agencies that collect statistics is a "feature", not a bug. Why deal with unemployment, declining GDP, etc when you can just shut down the agency figuring out how many people are unemployed and where the GDP is going? Better yet, outsource it to the guy who gave you $10M in campaign donations or bought your crypto coins and then wink-nodded at you, and give him a $50M contract to do something the feds were doing for $20M - and he lies to make you look better. Win-win-win...

whatshisface 2y ago
This might be true for air pollution and preventable diseases, but these quick losses in real wealth are immediately apparent.
- hiddencost 2y ago
  Plenty of authoritarian countries cook the books successfully. The story of Yeltsin visiting an American grocery store comes to mind: https://www.chron.com/neighborhood/bayarea/news/article/When-Boris-Yeltsin-went-grocery-shopping-in-Clear-5759129.php https://www.chron.com/neighborhood/bayarea/news/article/When... "He told his fellow Russians in his entourage that if their people, who often must wait in line for most goods, saw the conditions of U.S. supermarkets, "there would be a revolution."" Given how woefully behind American healthcare and education and retirement is, it's quite remarkable Americans don't understand how poor they are.
  - whatshisface 2y ago
    It's one thing to say that someone who lives far away isn't as well off as they claim to be and another to say that someone's retirement account hasn't gone down.
    - hiddencost 2y ago
      See here's the thing. It's easy to prevent it from going down. You just print money. The number goes up but the purchasing power goes down.
  - hattmall 2y ago
    How woefully behind is American Healthcare, Education and retirement exactly though?
    - hmottestad 2y ago
      Life expectancy in the US is behind 47 countries according to https://www.worldometers.info/demographics/life-expectancy/ https://www.worldometers.info/demographics/life-expectancy/ Infant mortality rate is behind 53 countries: https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/field/infant-mortality-rate/country-comparison/ https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/field/infant-mortalit... This definitely won’t be representative of the full spectrum of health care, but it’s what I found after a quick search. I wouldn’t call it woefully behind, but definitely not winning any medals anytime soon.
    - hiddencost 2y ago
      34th on life expectancy: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK571929/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK571929/ Spending per capita is a disaster: https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/chart-collection/health-spending-u-s-compare-countries/#GDP%20per%20capita%20and%20health%20consumption%20spending%20per%20capita,%202022%20(U.S.%20dollars,%20PPP%20adjusted) https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/chart-collection/health-... Retirement ranking 29 of 48 https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cnbc.com/amp/2024/10/16/heres-why-the-us-retirement-system-isnt-among-the-worlds-best.html https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cnbc.com/amp/2024/10/16/her... You're welcome to participate in the conversation beyond just sea lion king.
    - spiderfarmer 2y ago
      They’re ranked 32nd in fiscal sustainability in relation to healthcare and 10th overall. 48th in life expectancy. 29th in retirement security. 24th in science education. 38th in math. 36th in the Gini index. 27th in social mobility. This is why U S A chants are always so cringe.
IceHegel 2y ago
In the middle of Covid, the Federal Reserve changed the definition of M2 money supply at the exact moment of the largest increase in the money supply to date for unknown reasons. It made all comparisons between pre- and post-change numbers difficult, probably a coincidence. USG is an independent organism that is under attack and it is fighting back however it can. Remember, it's always looking out for itself, not for you.
- scrollbar 2y ago
  FUD / Citation required. Quick google search reveals you are incorrect (components of M2 shifted, and portions moved between M1 and M2, but M1 is a subset of M2, so there is no significant change to total M2 supply before and after). Also Federal Reserve is not part of the US Government.
  - MegaButts 2y ago
    https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/M2SL https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/M2SL > Before May 2020, M2 consists of M1 plus (1) savings deposits (including money market deposit accounts); (2) small-denomination time deposits (time deposits in amounts of less than $100,000) less individual retirement account (IRA) and Keogh balances at depository institutions; and (3) balances in retail money market funds (MMFs) less IRA and Keogh balances at MMFs. > Beginning May 2020, M2 consists of M1 plus (1) small-denomination time deposits (time deposits in amounts of less than $100,000) less IRA and Keogh balances at depository institutions; and (2) balances in retail MMFs less IRA and Keogh balances at MMFs. Seasonally adjusted M2 is constructed by summing savings deposits (before May 2020), small-denomination time deposits, and retail MMFs, each seasonally adjusted separately, and adding this result to seasonally adjusted M1. EDIT: Of course since M1 is what really changed, M2 is effectively the same.
    - LeonB 2y ago
      M1 changed in a way that made M1 larger. So explaining M2 in terms of M1 only works if you include those definition in the equation. Otherwise it will falsely look like M2 fell by the amount that M1 rose.
ks2048 2y ago
Reminds me of Trump’s view on Covid testing, “If We Stop Testing, We’d Have Fewer Cases”. https://www.voanews.com/amp/covid-19-pandemic_trump-if-we-stop-testing-wed-have-fewer-cases/6191165.html https://www.voanews.com/amp/covid-19-pandemic_trump-if-we-st...
- chneu 2y ago
  While all administrations hide evidence, conservative/republican presidents do it pretty openly. Bush and 9/11 was a great example. I dont know of too many bigger lies/coverups than the information surrounding 9/11 and the "war on terror". The issue is that something like 1/3rd of americans will eagerly believe anything if it's directed towards the right victims or their party says it.
- j16sdiz 2y ago
  From the page you linked: > "If we stop testing right now, we'd have very few cases, if any," Trump asserted. > > Earlier in the day, the president, on social media, called “testing a double-edged sword” that makes the country “look bad” but is “good to have.” It's hard to get what he really want from that snippet .
Centigonal 2y ago
The article covers many cases that predate the current administration. I'm not contesting your point, but I think TFA is about a bipartisan failure to keep federal data collection infrastructure up to date.
- uppost 2y ago
  It's not a very good article, but it hints at another angle, the problem is not only lack of funding growth, it is that modernizing and keeping up with the ever expanding mandates is not possible without major reinvestment. If they want great precision about Guatemalen migrant single mothers in the CPS because that is now a important group to gather data on, it costs a lot. (Worth noting too that these expanding mandates are often very political in nature and actually undermine the enterprise as adding too many features to software without regard to tech debt will often tend to do.) What should strike many readers: zero mention of efficiency gains or emerging methods made possible by LLM, uav, and other modern tech. A tech savvy reader should wonder about that stuff. One of the best sales pitches for increasing funding is specifically this, modernizing costs money in the next 5 years but saves much, much more money longer term. Is it not the right time for robot census workers?
yubblegum 2y ago
Indeed, how do we know they are "destroyed"? Would it be 'surprise surprise' when then same oligarchs start companies that provide "essential" services again (with AI trained on publicly owned IP)? And guess what, they also have the rolodex of domain experts that they threw to the unemployment market and who can blame n% of them holding their nose and then going to work for the same (cause you know, gotta feed the family and pay the mortgage).

whatshisface 2y ago

This might be true for air pollution and preventable diseases, but these quick losses in real wealth are immediately apparent.

hiddencost 2y ago
Plenty of authoritarian countries cook the books successfully. The story of Yeltsin visiting an American grocery store comes to mind: https://www.chron.com/neighborhood/bayarea/news/article/When-Boris-Yeltsin-went-grocery-shopping-in-Clear-5759129.php https://www.chron.com/neighborhood/bayarea/news/article/When... "He told his fellow Russians in his entourage that if their people, who often must wait in line for most goods, saw the conditions of U.S. supermarkets, "there would be a revolution."" Given how woefully behind American healthcare and education and retirement is, it's quite remarkable Americans don't understand how poor they are.
- whatshisface 2y ago
  It's one thing to say that someone who lives far away isn't as well off as they claim to be and another to say that someone's retirement account hasn't gone down.
  - hiddencost 2y ago
    See here's the thing. It's easy to prevent it from going down. You just print money. The number goes up but the purchasing power goes down.
- hattmall 2y ago
  How woefully behind is American Healthcare, Education and retirement exactly though?
  - hmottestad 2y ago
    Life expectancy in the US is behind 47 countries according to https://www.worldometers.info/demographics/life-expectancy/ https://www.worldometers.info/demographics/life-expectancy/ Infant mortality rate is behind 53 countries: https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/field/infant-mortality-rate/country-comparison/ https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/field/infant-mortalit... This definitely won’t be representative of the full spectrum of health care, but it’s what I found after a quick search. I wouldn’t call it woefully behind, but definitely not winning any medals anytime soon.
  - hiddencost 2y ago
    34th on life expectancy: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK571929/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK571929/ Spending per capita is a disaster: https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/chart-collection/health-spending-u-s-compare-countries/#GDP%20per%20capita%20and%20health%20consumption%20spending%20per%20capita,%202022%20(U.S.%20dollars,%20PPP%20adjusted) https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/chart-collection/health-... Retirement ranking 29 of 48 https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cnbc.com/amp/2024/10/16/heres-why-the-us-retirement-system-isnt-among-the-worlds-best.html https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cnbc.com/amp/2024/10/16/her... You're welcome to participate in the conversation beyond just sea lion king.
  - spiderfarmer 2y ago
    They’re ranked 32nd in fiscal sustainability in relation to healthcare and 10th overall. 48th in life expectancy. 29th in retirement security. 24th in science education. 38th in math. 36th in the Gini index. 27th in social mobility. This is why U S A chants are always so cringe.

IceHegel 2y ago

In the middle of Covid, the Federal Reserve changed the definition of M2 money supply at the exact moment of the largest increase in the money supply to date for unknown reasons. It made all comparisons between pre- and post-change numbers difficult, probably a coincidence. USG is an independent organism that is under attack and it is fighting back however it can. Remember, it's always looking out for itself, not for you.

scrollbar 2y ago
FUD / Citation required. Quick google search reveals you are incorrect (components of M2 shifted, and portions moved between M1 and M2, but M1 is a subset of M2, so there is no significant change to total M2 supply before and after). Also Federal Reserve is not part of the US Government.
- MegaButts 2y ago
  https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/M2SL https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/M2SL > Before May 2020, M2 consists of M1 plus (1) savings deposits (including money market deposit accounts); (2) small-denomination time deposits (time deposits in amounts of less than $100,000) less individual retirement account (IRA) and Keogh balances at depository institutions; and (3) balances in retail money market funds (MMFs) less IRA and Keogh balances at MMFs. > Beginning May 2020, M2 consists of M1 plus (1) small-denomination time deposits (time deposits in amounts of less than $100,000) less IRA and Keogh balances at depository institutions; and (2) balances in retail MMFs less IRA and Keogh balances at MMFs. Seasonally adjusted M2 is constructed by summing savings deposits (before May 2020), small-denomination time deposits, and retail MMFs, each seasonally adjusted separately, and adding this result to seasonally adjusted M1. EDIT: Of course since M1 is what really changed, M2 is effectively the same.
  - LeonB 2y ago
    M1 changed in a way that made M1 larger. So explaining M2 in terms of M1 only works if you include those definition in the equation. Otherwise it will falsely look like M2 fell by the amount that M1 rose.

ks2048 2y ago

Reminds me of Trump’s view on Covid testing, “If We Stop Testing, We’d Have Fewer Cases”. https://www.voanews.com/amp/covid-19-pandemic_trump-if-we-stop-testing-wed-have-fewer-cases/6191165.html https://www.voanews.com/amp/covid-19-pandemic_trump-if-we-st...

chneu 2y ago
While all administrations hide evidence, conservative/republican presidents do it pretty openly. Bush and 9/11 was a great example. I dont know of too many bigger lies/coverups than the information surrounding 9/11 and the "war on terror". The issue is that something like 1/3rd of americans will eagerly believe anything if it's directed towards the right victims or their party says it.
j16sdiz 2y ago
From the page you linked: > "If we stop testing right now, we'd have very few cases, if any," Trump asserted. > > Earlier in the day, the president, on social media, called “testing a double-edged sword” that makes the country “look bad” but is “good to have.” It's hard to get what he really want from that snippet .

Centigonal 2y ago

The article covers many cases that predate the current administration. I'm not contesting your point, but I think TFA is about a bipartisan failure to keep federal data collection infrastructure up to date.

uppost 2y ago
It's not a very good article, but it hints at another angle, the problem is not only lack of funding growth, it is that modernizing and keeping up with the ever expanding mandates is not possible without major reinvestment. If they want great precision about Guatemalen migrant single mothers in the CPS because that is now a important group to gather data on, it costs a lot. (Worth noting too that these expanding mandates are often very political in nature and actually undermine the enterprise as adding too many features to software without regard to tech debt will often tend to do.) What should strike many readers: zero mention of efficiency gains or emerging methods made possible by LLM, uav, and other modern tech. A tech savvy reader should wonder about that stuff. One of the best sales pitches for increasing funding is specifically this, modernizing costs money in the next 5 years but saves much, much more money longer term. Is it not the right time for robot census workers?

yubblegum 2y ago

Indeed, how do we know they are "destroyed"? Would it be 'surprise surprise' when then same oligarchs start companies that provide "essential" services again (with AI trained on publicly owned IP)? And guess what, they also have the rolodex of domain experts that they threw to the unemployment market and who can blame n% of them holding their nose and then going to work for the same (cause you know, gotta feed the family and pay the mortgage).