Display:
I'm sure it's because I produce them on a daily basis, but it baffles me how seemingly-intelligent people will swallow all sorts of bullshit about government statistics.

There's no conspiracy.  The measures haven't changed markedly in 70 years.

Still, there are dipshits out there asserting that Bill Clinton or Ronald Reagan or Zombie Thomas Jefferson waved his hand at some point and created a magical lower unemployment calculation.

Idiocy.

Conservatives want live babies so they can raise them to be dead soldiers. - George Carlin

by Drew J Jones (myfriends@thisispancakes.com) on Tue Jan 5th, 2010 at 06:38:42 PM EST
They actually did in the UK. The Thatcher administration was very good at changing their definitions to keep "unemployment" down. They were the ones who took people who were unemployed due to long term sickness and disability out, which has now returned to haunt the government lately.

It may be some transatlantic transpolant.

Besides which, everyone knows that 78.2% of govt statistics are hooey

keep to the Fen Causeway

by Helen (lareinagal at yahoo dot co dot uk) on Wed Jan 6th, 2010 at 03:58:07 AM EST
[ Parent ]
They didn't change the calculation method, they shifted people from one category to another. Long-term unemployment in the UK was swallowed up by Incapacity Benefit entitlement (still is, to a considerable extent).
by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Wed Jan 6th, 2010 at 04:19:08 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Oh I cant find it but I remember a diagram that showed during the 1980s that showed over fourty changes in definitions (Seperate to the campaign to persuade people to change over from unemployment to sickness benmefit)that in every case apart from one had resulted in a reduction of the unemployment numbers. These recalculations supposedly cut unemployment numbers by about 1.5 million to 3.5 million

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.
by ceebs (ceebs (at) eurotrib (dot) com) on Wed Jan 6th, 2010 at 08:41:44 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Or it might be a Eurostat harmonization move.

En un viejo país ineficiente, algo así como España entre dos guerras civiles, poseer una casa y poca hacienda y memoria ninguna. -- Gil de Biedma
by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Wed Jan 6th, 2010 at 05:26:17 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Display:
Login
. Make a new account
. Reset password
Occasional Series