There are many fundamental flaws in our current system.
One huge flaw? The data government provides.
It is always under the control of an elected administration - that would suffer un-election should too much of that data be negative.
So it is inherently in every administration’s interest? To fudge, obfuscate and reconfigure the data.
ALL the time we see data released - to much fanfare - that make the current administration look good. And then, months later, the data are quietly “adjusted” to numbers that damage the administration - but better reflect reality.
This is a HUGE problem. Because tens of trillions of dollars’ worth of decisions are made based upon these government numbers.
The government’s jobs numbers are notoriously bad. They are breathlessly anticipated - and then feverishly cited - every month. As if they are an unerring oracle of the state of the economy.
But jobs numbers are the ones most famously male cow excrement-ed upwards - to then later be “adjusted” downwards.
The problem is uni-party - non-partisan.
The Joe Biden Administration had 911,000 jobs retroactively “adjusted” downward between March 2024 and March 2025. (Which admittedly does bleed over slightly into the Donald Trump Administration.)
Speaking of which, Trump’s 2025 was the worst year for jobs in decades. But we didn’t know that - until 2026. After the titanic “adjustments” were made.
584,000 jobs initially claimed to have been added? Were then “adjusted” all the way down to 181,000 jobs. Which retroactively made 2025 the worst jobs year since 2003.
All of this short-term chicanery? Makes one wonder about the larger numbers we are spoon fed by The Feds.
In December, I wrote of the bigger picture poverty numbers.
The official government number of people in poverty in the US at that time was 40.8 million. But the way the government computes that number is HIGHLY suspect. HIGHLY tilted to (obviously) lower that number.
In no small part by failing to update the ever-more-inflated prices of things. And using outdated models of on what we now spend our money.
When you run numbers that are more reflective of modern reality? The number of people in poverty was given to be 178.5 million people.
Do we know with moral certitude that the latter number is 100% accurate? We do not.
But given the ever-more-pernicious inflation? And the ever-increasing record amount of household debt - and the ever-increasing delinquencies on that debt? And….
Doesn’t it seem like the true poverty number is closer to 178.5 million - than it is to the government’s 40.8 million?
Now let’s look at the bigger picture jobs numbers.
We were told by the government that in August the US economy added 162,000 jobs - which left the unemployment rate unchanged at 4.1%.
The fact that the monthly jobs numbers and unemployment rate are unilaterally derived from different data - but are then cited together? Likely also speaks to the government’s obfuscations.
The “unemployment rate” is certainly a giant bag of dishonesties masquerading as data.
There are, in fact, several different unemployment rates computed by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). How’s that for clearing things up?
If you guessed that the government (and everyone else) focuses on the lowest unemployment percentage of them all? Congratulations, you win a cookie.
We are spoon fed U-3: “Total unemployed, as a percent of the civilian labor force (official unemployment rate).
But there is also the highest percentage - U-6: “Total unemployed, plus all people marginally attached to the labor force, plus total employed part time for economic reasons, as a percent of the civilian labor force plus all people marginally attached to the labor force.”
Get that? The “official” unemployment rate - refuses to count many millions of unemployed people. How corrupt is that?
Again, August 2026’s U-3 was 4.1%. The U-6 was 7.7%.
Welcome to DC. A Reality Free Zone.
And what if - like with the poverty numbers - NOTHING the government is extruding is actually reflective of reality?
This question forces those of us seeking reality to compute things like this….
Nearly 25% of U.S. Workers Are ‘Functionally Unemployed’ Economic Analysis Finds:
“The nation’s unemployment rate fell to 4.1% in July, well within the range economists consider healthy. Yet that measure…is an imprecise metric that fails to offer a full picture of the health of the job sector, according to Gene Ludwig, chairman of the Ludwig Institute for Shared Economic Prosperity (LISEP).
“The economic research firm’s ‘True Rate of Unemployment (TRU)’ seeks to capture the share of workers that the group defines as ‘functionally unemployed.’
“This includes not only people who are unemployed and looking for a job, but also those who are involuntarily working part-time and who are earning poverty-level wages, or less than $26,000 annually before taxes.
“Functional unemployment across the U.S. has climbed four straight months and stood at 24.9% as of July….”
Now, one can certainly argue that people who are underemployed - via hours and/or compensation - are not technically unemployed.
But I thought the point of this entire exercise was to represent the state of the job market and the economy.
That’s certainly what they claim when they cite the highly unreflective “official” U-3 unemployment rate.
But July’s U-3 was 4.1%. Whilst July’s TRU was 24.9%.
Given the state of Americans’ finances? And the state of the job market as we are actually experiencing it?
Doesn’t it seem like the true un-and-under-employment number is closer to 24.9% - than it is to the government’s 4.1%?
This endless avalanche of corrupted data and reporting? Is nigh entirely the result of it all being handled by elected officials perpetually peering at the next election - and the next round of headlines.
All of which brings back to mind my proposal that we end elections.
And instead fill all the once-elected positions - the way we fill juries. With one-term random appointments.
A four year accidental president - who is a plumber or electrician, rather than a career politician?
Is FAR less likely to rig all of these numbers.
And we would all have a far better idea of what is going on in this country.
And a far better functioning country.