Originally Posted by Alan2005 (Post 8485419)

No rae, it is acceptable to not trust stats based on what they are measuring or the way the data is collected. It is not acceptible to not trust them based on your own world view.

I do not trust inflation because it does not measure the increase in the money supply which in my view is real inflation. I do trust that the number is accurately measuring what they say it is, but that the number is mis-used.

Your mistrust of the BCS data is based on your own opinion and conjecture; so far I have seen from you:-

i) They don't measure crimes not reported to the police - False.
ii) People who don't report crimes to the police can't be arsed to report them to the BCS survey - False.

I should also point out that a margin of error is not a flaw. Every measurement ever of anything has a margin of error.

Originally Posted by rae (Post 8487226)

you see this is the problem with your arguments alan, basically everyone else is wrong and you are right. i can't be bothered picking through your points yet again where you have misquoted me, i've done it a few times now and you just gloss over it. it just always comes back to the first sentence here.