Wednesday, September 26, 2007

ABS Data Flawed

I quite like that noble institution, the Australian Bureau of Statistics, a treasure trove of information used for such things as guiding public policy and business marketing decisions. I would be pleased to help them in any way I could if they just asked politely. I would even have told them of the Glaring error that even a none-statistician such as myself could not help but see in the last form they forced me to fill out - it was either deliberately designed to provide inaccurate data or put together by an entire team of imbeciles. ... if they just asked politely.
I received a letter this morning informing me that I had been selected to participate in an ABS survey that involved someone coming into my home and asking me questions, and later, a follow up phone interview (the logic of having both a face to face and tele-interview I have yet to understand). A little investigation led me to discover that participation was compulsory and I would be fined if I refused to comply.
This blatant contravention of basic human rights leads to something called resentment, resentment leads to participants sabotaging the data collection process in the only accessible way they have at their disposal - being frugal with the truth.
Yes, the information I will be supplying will be about as accurate as the last form they made me fill out under duress.
So if you find, after sifting through all those stats, that there is a single person in West Beach with a PhD thesis titled 'The Influence of Feminist Principles in Yak Husbandry', an income of 20 sqillion dollars a year, an IQ of 576 that also claims an all liquorice diet is the only true path to enlightenment and that he is regularly contacted by extra terrestrials ... some of it might just be true !
Off to dust off my copy of Mein Kamf and polish up the jackboots