Re: OT : Idiot America !


Bob Monsen wrote:
> On Mon, 12 Dec 2005 22:58:02 -0800, dagmargoodboat wrote:
> >
> > Interesting proposal: the current Popular Sci... um, Scientific
> > American, has an article suggesting medical-style randomized clinical
> > trials to test the effects of social policies.
> >
> > That is, to actually try policies and see whether they work.
> >
> > I like it.
>
> There are always people analyzing any change to policy, to see what the
> effect is going to be.

The analysis of those policies, however, is fraught with too many
variables, uncertainties, and subjective judgements to ever reach
definitive answers. *Randomized* trials provide statistically valid
control groups, whereby many variables can be eliminated.

We've all seen the controversies over the interpretation of
well-planned, well-documented and controlled medical trials, despite
their rigorous statistical methods. Lacking these basic methods,
there's no hope of getting useful data from policy experiments.

It's time we injected a little science into the social sciences.

Regards,
James Arthur

.

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