Save the Statistical Abstract

Krugman points to this plea from Robert Samuelson to save the U.S. Statistical Abstract. Under pressure from Congress to "save money", the Census Bureau will disband the small team that assembles publications on the statistics of the United States. Apparently, this move cuts 24 jobs and saves $2.9 million annually.

This development is disturbing in many ways:

• The Abstract will simply vanish. They are not killing just the paper version. There will be no online version either.
• Samuelson claims someone at the Bureau made this statement: "[The Bureau] has to choose between its basic job of devising surveys and collecting statistics about economic, social and governmental conditions and the less-important task of publicizing the results." I hope this is a mis-quotation. Presenting and publicizing data is "less important" than collecting data? The priority is totally backwards.
• Terminating this statistical publication is an assault on our democracy. By not publicizing these statistics, the effect is to ring-fence this data so that only specialists will access it. By not organizing them into a publishable state, only specialists will have the time and the expertise to sift through the data and make sense of it. 
• Statistics is an annoying profession to those who find themselves being measured by the numbers. When things are not measured, they will be "guesstimated" with any number of assumptions. Policies will be put in place, and their effects will also be "guesstimated". Accountability becomes a vague concept, infinitely debatable. This does not bode well for effective governance.

Comments

[Mike Liveright]

I am sending the following to my representatives and to Obama:

Save the Science programs

Please see if you can save some of the less expensive science programs that benefit us all. I realize that you may not be able to preserve many of the Government programs that some of us liberals want, but the following are not very costly and provide major benefits to the nation so I hope that yu and the other side can re-consider them and maintain their funding , e.g.

See: http://www.offthechartsblog.org/budget-cuts-no-longer-%E2%80%9Cabstract%E2%80%9D/

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
cuts for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will contribute to a gap in weather satellite coverage by delaying the replacement of a key satellite. The gap, which will start in about 2016, could last a year or more and could reduce the accuracy of near-term weather forecasts, including early warnings of tornado conditions and massive snowfalls — potentially putting public safety at risk.

Statistical Abstract of the United States
demise of the Census Bureau’s annual Statistical Abstract of the United States. For over a century, journalists, researchers, students, and others have relied on the Statistical Abstract for authoritative information about the U.S. economy, society, and government. But the Census Bureau, facing a funding cut next year, plans to eliminate the Abstract to focus its limited resources on maintaining the quality of the data it collects.
http://numbersruleyourworld/2011/08/save-the-statistical-abstract.html

Food Safety
Funding to implement major legislation Congress passed last year to improve food safety is also at risk. Reports of contaminated products continue to make headlines, and House-approved cuts to the Food Safety and Inspection Service would make the situation worse

I'm sure that there are other nickel and dime cuts that I would hope that you can work the put back in the budget.

Thanks...

p.s. I'd also like to save the Hubble Successor, but as this is not a small cost item, I am including it as an after thought rather than the main request in this eMail.
See: http://idealab.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/08/nasa-tries-to-save-hubbles-successor-from-budget-ax.php

[Jerzy]

Thanks for posting this. I agree that it will be a sad day if the Statistical Abstract is indeed cut. But...
"Presenting and publicizing data is "less important" than collecting data? The priority is totally backwards."
How is it backwards? If nobody collects the data in the first place, there will be nothing to publicize. At least the data will still be collected and available -- just not all in one convenient place.

[zbicyclist]

I agree with Jerzy's point: if the data is collected it can be presented and publicized by others, or more slowly. Once you stop collecting, you can't go back in time and collect again.

[Kaiser]

Jerzy & zbicyclist: Thanks for the comment. Logically of course you are right. But my reading of this is that the data will not be available publicly; it may be available to specialists via an application process that would probably take months but nothing indicates it would be available to others. I speak from an engineering/IT perspective here. Every day there are more log files, more data than you can imagine that are collected in servers around the world that no one will ever look at.

[Kevin Porter]

That's like turning off the score board in a playoff basketball game and telling the fans to "enjoy".