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Pastimes : Clown-Free Zone... sorry, no clowns allowed -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mike M2 who wrote (30657)	10/24/2000 11:11:41 AM
From: LLCF	Respond to of 436258

<. The rational for hedonics may be seductive but it is totally irrelevant > I'd love to see a defense of it by the fed or BLS... wishful thinking. DAK

To: Mike M2 who wrote (30657)	10/24/2000 2:50:41 PM
From: Don Lloyd	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 436258

Mike - mises.org My Life in the BLS By Shawn Ritenour [Posted October 24, 2000] "...The best thing about my experience with the BLS is exactly that it is experience. It is in the past. However, while there I did gain valuable knowledge from the inside regarding the nature of government generated statistics and bureaucracy. Life with statistics is not as glamorous as Al Gore makes it sound. While working at the BLS, it was affirmed again and again how government statistics are practically useless at best and downright destructive at worst. I quickly learned that what I was doing at the Bureau had nothing to do with economics, my major field, and frankly had little importance whatsoever...." "...Upon arrival at my new job I immediately saw that everything that I’d heard about the evils of big government was not only true, but it was even worse than I imagined. When word of the BLS’s recent mistake calculating the CPI made it to The Dismal Scientist, a web site devoted to economic statistics, a commentator there said that to make sure this never happens again the BLS needs more money. What are they thinking?!? As it is, tax dollars flow into and out of the bureaucracy like blood from a stuck pig. This is due primarily to the BLS and the bureaucracy in general not having to make a profit. As Mises writes in his work Bureaucracy, which I also read during my stay inside the Beltway, "In public administration there is no connection between revenue and expenditures." And how! ..." "...Pretty soon, these mid-to-low level bureaucrats get trapped. They hate their jobs, because they see that rarely does effort or ability count for anything. They find themselves out of the political loop and, hence, cut off from the best route to promotion. They are stuck. They despise their jobs, yet it is too costly for them to leave and forge their way in the private sector. As I read a passage from Mises about the security of the bureaucrat, I was stunned by the truth of his observation. "Government jobs offer no opportunity for the display of personal talents and gifts. Regimentation spells the doom of initiative. The young man has no illusions about his future. He knows what is in store for him. He will get a job with one of the innumerable bureaus, he will be but a cog in a huge machine the working of which is more or less mechanical. The routine of a bureaucratic technique will cripple his mind and tie his hands. He will enjoy security. But this security will be rather of the kind that the convict enjoys within the prison walls. He will never be free to make decisions and to shape his own fate. he will forever be a man taken care of by other people. He will never be a real man relying on his own strength. He shudders at the sight of the huge office buildings in which he will bury himself."..." Regards, Don