Solving a lot of problems with statistics the BLS way.

If the BLS (Bureau of Labor Statistics) was in charge of things like measuring whether you were insured or ill a lot of our nation’s problems would be solved.

The way the BLS calculates unemployment removes people who have given up looking for work from the labor force. Ergo: stop looking for work, poof, you are no longer unemployed.

Let’s apply that to the uninsured. Have a life threatening disease and can’t get insurance so you stop shopping for it, poof, you are no longer uninsured.

If the disease is fatal and the BLS measures illness, poof, you are no longer ill, you are pre-dead.

Thanks to James Pethokoukis for Why the official 8.3 percent unemployment rate is a phony number—and what it means for Obama’s reelection

And Glenn Reynolds for the link.