4/2/11  Government Kool-Aid

"In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice, there is."

—Yogi Berra

Official government figures are a funny thing. For instance, if the price of food, gas and housing go up, it doesn't count as inflation. At least not in the official statistics, despite your having to pay more in the real world where it does count. Yeah, there's theory and there's practice.

Not only do they cherry pick the data for inflation, they do it for unemployment, too. If you've been out of work, can't find a job and just give up looking, you're no longer unemployed. According to the government anyway. Statistically you don't exist. So take heart, while you may be jobless at least you're not unemployed.

You gotta love the way government figures things. They're so... optimistic. But no matter how optimistic you are a glass that's half full is still half empty, too. Though if you're the government you could claim the empty half has quit trying and so doesn't count.

But where it gets real fun is when the government economists take all these questionable figures and insert them into their formulas to determine what their policies should be. From this they expect to get the correct answer. Oh well, it works in theory anyway. Is it any wonder economics is called the dismal science?