John Halle wrote:
>So maybe even the census numbers are cooked-I wouldn't know, though Doug
>certainly seems to think otherwise.
There's a big diff between imperfect and cooked. Of course they're not dead on - whatever could be?
Doug
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I should have made clear that I agree with you on this-though Kelly, from what she posted may feel otherwise. Still, there is reason to believe that census figures routinely underrepresent low-income communities, for the reasons which Kelly gives.
Where I think I do disagree with you is on your half-full perception of how most of us are experiencing the Clinton-era economy. While it's true that economic statistics are all we have to measure this, any number of the standard measures of improvement, as you know, may be seriously misleading. The most notorious of these is "growth," say in the case of Pinochet's Chile, or in 80's Brazil. Even increases in inflation adjusted mean per income can be misleading-the case I mentioned, if correct, would be one instance. There are many others I'm suspicious about.
I personally think that Prozac has a lot to do with why everyone thinks everything is so hunky dory.
Whatever. I'm off to Robin Hahnel at ZNet. Maybe he can help me out.
John Halle
Connecticut Campus Coordinator, Nader 2000