Sunday, May 20, 2012
Ah, For the Ignorance that Is Ignorant of Itself
Catherine Rampell quotes Daniel Webster, who sponsored a bill to eliminate the American Community Survey, which was passed by the full House of Representatives: “We’re spending $70 per person to fill this out. That’s just not cost effective, especially since in the end this is not a scientific survey. It’s a random survey.”
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
I've used the ACS for a couple of years. It is a thing of beauty.
Now now, Peter. It has been pointed out that the ACS was started in 1850, and we all know that was just two years after Marx and Engels came out with the Communist Manifesto. Even though the US Republican Party was a commie plot, given how Marx wrote a letter to Abe Lincoln congratulating him on his reelection to the presidency in 1864, we know that they have overcome that legacy and now understand what is at stake here...:-).
But Barkley, as we all know, Marx and Engels were *determinists* and therefore could not have inspired randomized sampling.
I think the Tea Partiers should train their guns on Francis Galton instead.
Statistical results have a well-known liberal bias. Especially random ones.
Post a Comment