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Zuckerberg-Backed Data Trove Exposes the Injustices of Criminal Justice

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Re: Zuckerberg-Backed Data Trove Exposes the Injustices of Criminal Justice

#51
post #3

This site [1] seems like a great complement to usafacts.org. It's great that these philanthropists are working on solutions to help us understand the empirical results of our policies and politicians. [1] https://measuresforjustice.org/portal/

I wonder about USAFacts. When I checked it out there were a ton of financial figures over a period of decades that didn't seem to be inflation-adjusted, which I think is likely to totally mislead people.

Could you expand on this a little bit for someone who isn't as familiar and might be prone to being mislead by it?

Re: Zuckerberg-Backed Data Trove Exposes the Injustices of Criminal Justice

#52
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At this point we need some kind of corporate blacklist of people like zuckerberg, page, and musk. And bar them from ever running for political office.

do i think tech scions and the like make the best presidents? no. but what you are proposing is neither possible to implement, nor defensible. im sure you have some thoughts on why you dont want those people running for office, why not share those.

Not OP, but if anything what I would like is to prevent those with corporations or large companies from being in office or limited power / huge oversight to prevent bias/favor towards propelling themselves (their company / corp) further than their competition instead of focusing on our society and selves as a whole.

Re: Zuckerberg-Backed Data Trove Exposes the Injustices of Criminal Justice

#53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because I wanted to address this fallacious argument that appears over and over. In case I wasn't clear: I think any sensible policy has to include punitive measures, along with adequate support.

> In case I wasn't clear: I think any sensible policy has to include punitive measures, along with adequate support. What sort of punitive measure is appropriate to use on someone whose doctor turned her into an alcoholic? What sort of punitive measures are appropriate for use on depressed people? "Sensible policy" would acknowledge that prison usually makes people's actual behavioral problems worse.

>"Sensible policy" would acknowledge that prison usually makes people's actual behavioral problems worse.

Indeed.

Prison is not the only form of punishment, and indeed it is not the most effective (in a large, if not overwhelming, majority of cases).

I think if you stopped and caught your breath, you'd realize we're mostly in agreement.

Re: Zuckerberg-Backed Data Trove Exposes the Injustices of Criminal Justice

#54
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you think Zuck is nothing more than a competent version of trump? If so, I can see why you wouldn't want him as president.

Not Zuckerburg specifically, I was answering How can it be worse than Trump, or a career politician? as a general question. What could be worse than Trump? A competent version. I think Zuckerburg probably has a lot more decency than Trump. Even so, I'm not worried about Zuckerburg as a political candidate, it'll take him succeeding at it for me to believe it is possible.

how can you be so sure after what just happened in 2016? that was the "showing anyone can win" event su generis. trump winning makes zuckerberg winning infinitely more realistic to me.

Re: Zuckerberg-Backed Data Trove Exposes the Injustices of Criminal Justice

#55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not Zuckerburg specifically, I was answering How can it be worse than Trump, or a career politician? as a general question. What could be worse than Trump? A competent version. I think Zuckerburg probably has a lot more decency than Trump. Even so, I'm not worried about Zuckerburg as a political candidate, it'll take him succeeding at it for me to believe it is possible.

how can you be so sure after what just happened in 2016? that was the "showing anyone can win" event su generis. trump winning makes zuckerberg winning infinitely more realistic to me.

Trump has absolutely huge name recognition and is quite charismatic.

Zuckerburg is not really that well known and as you say, not very charismatic.

I certainly agree that dark horse candidates can come out of nowhere, I just don't think that Zuckerburg is one of them.

Re: Zuckerberg-Backed Data Trove Exposes the Injustices of Criminal Justice

#56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

how can you be so sure after what just happened in 2016? that was the "showing anyone can win" event su generis. trump winning makes zuckerberg winning infinitely more realistic to me.

Trump has absolutely huge name recognition and is quite charismatic. Zuckerburg is not really that well known and as you say, not very charismatic. I certainly agree that dark horse candidates can come out of nowhere, I just don't think that Zuckerburg is one of them.

pretty sure a year ago you wouldn't have given trump much of a chance. i feel more qualified to say that than average because i've followed political futures markets for about 10 years, and watched as people consistently do what i suspect you are doing. when you follow / invest in the markets you are forced to translate your vague guesses into real records of your estimated probability at the time. it keeps you much more honest. you'll find its harder to mistakenly see unpredictable events as obvious after they happen, since you were trying to predict them before they happened.

also, its occasionally a valuable reference when talking politics, for instance: comey was fired and lots of people tried to say this was normal and expected, but there was a market that had being fbi director on 6/30 at 95%. pretty much throws cold water on that theory. not that it was anything other than an obvious deflection to begin with, but still kind of interesting.

i encourage you to follow the political futures markets, its a worthwhile endeavor. predictit.com is the standard now that intrade died. my apologies if you are actually speaking from some greater experience though.

Re: Zuckerberg-Backed Data Trove Exposes the Injustices of Criminal Justice

#57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Trump has absolutely huge name recognition and is quite charismatic. Zuckerburg is not really that well known and as you say, not very charismatic. I certainly agree that dark horse candidates can come out of nowhere, I just don't think that Zuckerburg is one of them.

pretty sure a year ago you wouldn't have given trump much of a chance. i feel more qualified to say that than average because i've followed political futures markets for about 10 years, and watched as people consistently do what i suspect you are doing. when you follow / invest in the markets you are forced to translate your vague guesses into real records of your estimated probability at the time. it keeps you much…

watched as people consistently do what i suspect you are doing.

What is it you think I'm doing?

I didn't really think Trump would get the R nomination, that's true. I don't see how that informs the comparison to Zuckerburg.

Re: Zuckerberg-Backed Data Trove Exposes the Injustices of Criminal Justice

#58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder about USAFacts. When I checked it out there were a ton of financial figures over a period of decades that didn't seem to be inflation-adjusted, which I think is likely to totally mislead people.

Could you expand on this a little bit for someone who isn't as familiar and might be prone to being mislead by it?

It's possible for an amount to be more in nominal dollars but less in real dollars if you don't adjust for inflation. If you had $20 in 1913 it would be equivalent to having almost 500 bucks today.

Basically, it can look like spending on something has gone way up even if in reality it has gone down.

Re: Zuckerberg-Backed Data Trove Exposes the Injustices of Criminal Justice

#59
Kudos to the court clerks who are making the public data available. So refreshing.

On the other hand, in Massachusetts, progressive in so many ways, the clerks treat court databases as proprietary and unavailable to be copied. And the data on the criminal side, practically under lock and key. It's a big impediment even to getting started examining the nuts and bolts of the justice system as this project has done.

Re: Zuckerberg-Backed Data Trove Exposes the Injustices of Criminal Justice

#60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could you expand on this a little bit for someone who isn't as familiar and might be prone to being mislead by it?

It's possible for an amount to be more in nominal dollars but less in real dollars if you don't adjust for inflation. If you had $20 in 1913 it would be equivalent to having almost 500 bucks today. Basically, it can look like spending on something has gone way up even if in reality it has gone down.

I think this is perfectly fine if the data just states whether the sums are in adjusted or nominal currency.

Doing the conversion is an elementary school thing. And not even that: just type "1000 dollars in 1947" to Google, and you'll get a number of links that do the conversion.

Sometimes it's the deceptive conversions that are a problem, so keeping in nominal sums helps with data integrity.

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