Proper Disclosure of Statistics in Misinformation Era

I found this really cool tool on the OECD website the other day(link will be at the bottom). The tool contains massive amounts of statistical data for many countries in the world.  What is really cool about this tool is the interface that allows you to easily see the most generally used statistics used often as success indicators for the economy, public health, education and others.  It also has many less commonly published statistics that make up components of how the most general indicators, such as GDP, are calculated. The tool contains historical data for about the past decade or even prior and allows you to compare one country to another and extract.

As I played around with it more and more, it re-enforced how statistics can be so easily manipulated to show something positive that really isn't all that positive.  A great example of this is how Stephen Harper is always boasting about his government bringing the unemployment rate down.  He always leaves out the fact that the extra jobs created were mostly part time jobs and another fact that many people are stuck in part time jobs because they can't find a full time job.

This really bothers me as government, corporations and the media use stats quite often in an attempt to make a statement appear true that are not completely true which misinforms the public.  This is a growing serious issue given current economic situation and the 1% vs 99% occupy movement.  I think that we need a better set of standards and ethics that hold these institutions accountable for disclosure of full details when using statistics to inform or mislead the general public.  More to come on this..........

The Tool
http://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx

Get ready for OccupyTO and Right Wing Manipulation

I saw this picture(below) being sent around with a student showing a hand written letter about how wonderful they are for having no debt in their last year of University, supporting themselves and only working for a little more than minimum wage.  Many people praised the student and said they are likely to go places in this world.  First off, I don't think so because their attempt to protest one of the draft Occupy Wall Street demands doesn't even make sense and I think it's a complete lie!
OWS draft demands
http://coupmedia.org/occupywallstreet/occupy-wall-street-official-demands-2009  (search for Education Reform)

I think this student completely misses the point though. People aren't blaming wall street for their own debt. They are blaming wall street and corporations for greed, risky decisions and the fact that corporations have as much legal protection as an individual and this has been abused leading to a unsustainable economy. Greed wasn't included in the models for a successful free market system and is immoral.  I feel like a broken record somewhat.

I think the OWS demand is misunderstood.  The OWS group is suggesting that instead of spending money on war, they should look at putting that money into loan forgiveness programs. Loan forgiveness programs aren't new and work very similar to scholoaraships.  Is this student saying that money should continute to be spent on war instead of scholarships and student aids??


Hope everyone is having a a great day and I'm looking forward to checking out what people have to say down town Toronto tomorrow.  Here are some of the messages I've seen already.
http://shitharperdid.tumblr.com/post/11443504914/10-reasons-to-occupycanada-from-shitharperdid




IMAGE: The unrealistic letter from a supposed student and why I think it's a LIE!!

APPENDIX - assumed student budget with bare essentials Income $270 Weekly $9/hr @ 30 hrs/wk (before Taxes) (Note that $9/hr is about $1.50-$2 over the average minimum wage in the USA $1080 Monthly (befoere taxes) $900 Monthly (estimate after taxes) -$     10.50 Income Remaining after basic expenses Expense Monthly Amount Comments Rent  $ 400.00 Lucky to find rent this cheap and lets even assume it has laundry and included utilities.  It's also assumed that this is shared with at least one roomate Phone  $   30.00 Basic phone with very litle use Healthcare  $   98.00 This is actually much less than the average monthly premium for medicare in the USA for most without coverage through employment Grocery  $ 200.00 $50/week isn't that much and is kind of unrealistic Tuition  $   62.50 10% of Tuition cost at average US public state univeristy($7500) Transport Transit / Travel/Home Visits?  $   30.00 Asssumed the student lives near the university and work which is very convenient and lucky with such low rent.  Or assumed the student uses a bike, lives somewhere with year round warm climate and that bike is not stolen and few repairs or tune ups are required. Misc  $   90.00 Any good budget puts aside 10% for miscelleaneous items and unexpected expenses (clothes, emergencies, day to day) Saving  $          -    Nothing left for saving Books and School Supplies?  $          -    Nothing left in budget Recreation  $          -    Nothing left in budget

If You Feed Them, They'll Never Leave

Happy Thanksgiving Canada!

Since the election in Ontario is over, I've been paying some attention to the Occupy movements around the world.  I'm not sure what my take on it is yet but I do know that the distribution of wealth is becoming less and less spread out and there's an abundance of greed out there.  This is seen even more in the corporate world and it seems to be growing.  It's just common sense that evenly distributing wealth is better for everyone. I think that greed was assumed out of successful models of the free market system.

I'm not a religious person however I do like to say I live by a set of moral values where greed is not OK.   In my own morals, envy is also not OK.  I know this is also true in almost every religion out there.  So I've been reading/watching very right wing GOP wannabes and biased pundits accusing this occupation of being in envious of what is had on wall street and I need to set them straight.  These people in the Occupy movement are not guilty of envy.  Envy by definition is NOT the opposite of greed and doesn't have anything to do with wanting material things of others.  Envy is also not usually related to physical possession of anything and is ill feelings towards someone because they can tell jokes better than they can or run faster or can carry a tune.   The opposite of envy is kindness, comfort and confidence.  From what I've seen so far, the Occupy people are definitely not envious. If anyone is showing envy it's these right winged religious politicians and activists who obviously don't understand the English language very well.

It is a holiday after all, so I will end this post by passing along a little funny  that I received today.  A cousin of mine sent me a text that said:
    "Happy Thanksgiving!  You know, I bet you at the first Thanksgiving there was a wise old native woman saying 'Don't feed them!  If you share our food with them, they'll never leave!'"
This gave me a good laugh but also made me thankful that they didn't listen to the old woman because she was probably being greedy and the natives showed just how generous they are by sharing and participating in the first Thanksgiving.  If not, then my ancestors may not have immigrated to this wonderful country.

Eat and drink 'til you get sick if you want but don't be greedy and try to be kind and thankful.