New Tool For Finding US Government Data/Stats

[vienna]

Former Microsoft CEO, Steve Ballmer has used a bit of his billions to launch a website bringing together various diverse US Government data sources and made them available on the Web. The site also serves as a means for US citizens to see more clearly where and how their tax money is spent. It is pretty impressive as a new effort and is worth a look. One particularly interesting feature is the REPORTS link at the top right of the home page, which presents a sort of progress report on the US Government's operations and expenditures in a form based on the 10-K reports corporations are required to file with the SEC (I've toiled over the preparation more than a few of those):

https://www.usafacts.org/resources/U..._10-K_2017.PDF

For those of you not citizens or residents of the US, the site provides a wide, yet concise, description of how the US raises and expends revenue and how the management of tax revenues works (or is supposed to work)...



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[vienna]

This is an interview with Steve Ballmer explaining the USAFacts site:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/17/b...=top-news&_r=0




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[Platapus]

Excellent! the easier it is for citizens to learn about how their government really works (instead of what some political commentator says) the better.

Today, citizens have so much access to government information but, judging from what I read on the Internets Tubes, few bother to do the simplest research.

I hope this new site will remain true and make it even easier for citizens to do research.

Of course you can show an American an information source, but you can't make them use it.

[em2nought]

Originally Posted by Platapus

Of course you can show an American an information source, but you can't make them use it.

Hmm, I wonder why?

[vienna]

Originally Posted by Platapus

Excellent! the easier it is for citizens to learn about how their government really works (instead of what some political commentator says) the better.

Today, citizens have so much access to government information but, judging from what I read on the Internets Tubes, few bother to do the simplest research.

I hope this new site will remain true and make it even easier for citizens to do research.

Of course you can show an American an information source, but you can't make them use it.

I should have known you would see the value of a site like the one Ballmer has set up...

You make a valid point about the willingness of Americans, or any people, for that matter, to actually get up the energy to find facts for themselves. The general process has been to just wait until some talking head spouts something, no matter how suspect, that more or less corresponds to their own viewpoint and glom onto it as affirmation and 'proof' of reality. I don't know about anyone else, but I have a strong need to know if someone or some entity is feeding the public a line of Bandini and I particularly want to know if that someone or something is a source I would otherwise consider responsible or accurate. It is too often the easy path to just dismiss out of hand fact or opinion out of hand that does not fit the narrative of one's party or own viewpoint, and that is pretty much the core of the problem: those who do wish to 'put one over' on the public in general, and voters in particular, depend on the willingness to just go along with the 'party line'; its the main reason I have long adopted a position as an Independent and do choose to research what is presented to me as "fact"...



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