Why I don't trust government data... It's just too damned tempting for politicians and bureaucrats to screw with the data to make it say what they want it to say. The “unemployment rate”, which I've discussed often before, is a prime example. It's to the incumbent government's advantage to have the unemployment rate look lower than it really is, so they redefine the meaning of “unemployment” to exclude so-called “discouraged workers” – and presto! the unemployment rate is cut nearly in half. Of course, credit for this instantly is attributed to those same bureaucrats. Of course.
Now Forbes has a report on another such data redefinition, that smacks strongly of the same sort of thing. This time the government wants to redefine the meaning of “cancer” – and, you guessed it, the result will be a lower rate of cancer. Why, it's like magic!
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