The reason this is relevant to us, John, is that behind this debate is
an economic argument for which data is acutely relevant but is being
misused. The entire justification of everything Osborne and his cronies
are doing is based on a particular economic paradigm which is
empirically false and can be shown to be so. The evidence is clear. What
isn't clear is how this paradigm has taken over practically the entire
world. The fact that many people believe in it doesn't make it so. In
such discussions, the data itself may not be explicit, but it is there
in the background.
For example, in the Guru-Murthy/Corbyn acrimonious discussion, if you
can call it that, economic presuppositions lie behind every one of the
questions asked and a number of the answers Corbyn provided. One is
especially relevant. It is C's contention that Labour lost the election
because they presented an austerity-lite economic program and people
wanted something different or didn't believe Labour or both. Data is
available, which Corbyn may or may not know, that can substantiate that
O's austerity program is counterproductive. It will also show that
Ball's austerity-lite program is also going in the wrong direction.
Guru-Murthy's aggressive question concerning families of 5 children
relies on a presupposition that there is a finite pile of money to pay
for these unwanted people. A proper analysis of the monetary system will
show that this presupposition is empty. It will revolve around an
accounting analysis which involves data at its core.
This is why these subjects are not just political discussions unrelated
to data analysis, but involve economic data at their core. The political
issues of today fundamentally involve economic issues, which has not
always been the case, and these, if they are to be considered
scientific, rely on good data analysis in addition to good conceptual
analysis. Hence, it seems to me that they are relevant to RadStats
conceived in a broad as opposed to a narrow sense.
Larry
------ Original Message ------
From: "John Whittington" <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: 15/07/2015 22:27:54
Subject: Re: and now they are going after the trade unions
>I don't suppose it's a welcome comment/question, but am I the only
>person who is struggling to understand what this discussion has got to
>do with Statistics, radical or otherwise? There are so many on-line
>platforms for political discussions ........ !!
>
>Kind Regards,
>
>John
>
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