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Political meddling at the Census Bureau damages the US statistical system

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Re: Political meddling at the Census Bureau damages the US statistical system

#4
post #2

[flagged]

> How can you fuck up so monumentally, but then when Trump fires you somehow he’s the problem?

They can both be a problem, it doesn’t have to be mutually exclusive. I’m sure in all the turnover Trump removed some incompetent people. He also probably removed quite a few competent people. The ratio is what matters.

Re: Political meddling at the Census Bureau damages the US statistical system

#5
post #4
post #2

[flagged]

> How can you fuck up so monumentally, but then when Trump fires you somehow he’s the problem? They can both be a problem, it doesn’t have to be mutually exclusive. I’m sure in all the turnover Trump removed some incompetent people. He also probably removed quite a few competent people. The ratio is what matters.

This isn’t a minor fuckup. It skewed House apportionment for a decade. Think of what would happen in the private sector: your team screws up something that blows up a major customer relationship. Do you think the firings are going to be surgical?

Re: Political meddling at the Census Bureau damages the US statistical system

#7
post #2

[flagged]

The quote isn't corroborated by the report.

Ohio and Utah were overcounted, Illinois was undercounted, and the remaining 37 states plus DC had no statistically significant error either way. Some of the significant results are also marginal: Delaware's estimate of 5.45% has a standard error of 2.82, so the 90% confidence interval barely clears zero.

Re: Political meddling at the Census Bureau damages the US statistical system

#8
post #2

[flagged]

Is that "difficult" quote from a separate source? I can't find it in the text of the linked report.

Also, the report says that both red and blue states had both overcounts and undercounts, which is a different picture than "over counts in blue states". It is accurate that more blue states had overcounts and more red states had undercounts.

I realise your question is rhetorical, but the report does offer a possible answer: "The 2020 Census faced many challenges such as conducting fieldwork during the COVID-19 pandemic. Other challenges to the 2020 Census included con- troversy around a proposed citizenship question and changes in the duration of the Nonresponse Followup operation." It's plausible that those "challenges" could have been experienced unevenly by state, particularly with how politicised the pandemic and its mitigations were in the US.

Re: Political meddling at the Census Bureau damages the US statistical system

#9
post #2

[flagged]

Is that "difficult" quote from a separate source? I can't find it in the text of the linked report. Also, the report says that both red and blue states had both overcounts and undercounts, which is a different picture than "over counts in blue states". It is accurate that more blue states had overcounts and more red states had undercounts. I realise your question is rhetorical, but the report does offer a possible an…

Yeah, good catch. Meant to link to two sources, the census bureau admission and an article describing it. I forgot to paste one of them: https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/3504546-census-blunder-...

Re: Political meddling at the Census Bureau damages the US statistical system

#10
>"We need to check more carefully who is credited and who is accountable for statistical agency releases. We need to watch carefully, when the 2025 American Community Survey eventually comes out, whether the ban on noise infusion leads to less data being published and which tables are suppressed. We also need to question seemingly technical methodological changes and scrutinize them for political motivation more closely."

I didn't realize they were delaying the 2025 ACS again and it seems things are just going to get worse if things don't fit the narrative of the administration.

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