[kimixa]

And the clear bias in the presentation of numbers in the "question".

What people called the "Government" provided rather different things 200 years ago, let alone issues with defining a comparable "GDP" in such different environments.

[jebarker]

Did you mean to reply to me? I don't see how this counters what I said. If you mean to imply that the questions use of statistics is a comparable problem to the current "government experiment" then I don't agree.

[kimixa]

No, I was intending to build upon what you said that the question likely isn't actually being asked in good faith, instead an attempt to "anchor" readers into the assumptions it makes rather than really examine the answer, and people may indeed then have issues with it.

To really design experiments we really need to be asking meaningful questions about comparable metrics, after all.

[jebarker]

Ah, I see. Yes, I agree.