Numbers Don't Lie – But Leaders Might Not Like Them
At first, it looked like the U.S. had added over 140,000 new jobs in May and June. That was good news for Trump, because he had put tariffs (extra taxes) on imported goods, and people were worried those would hurt the economy. But later, after a closer check, the department said only 19,000 jobs were added in May, and 14,000 in June. July looked even worse.
Trump didn't like these new numbers. He said they were 'rigged' to make him and his political party look bad. But experts say that's just not true. These job numbers are made by hundreds of people using detailed methods. Sometimes they're off at first because many companies are late sending their reports.
Trump could've asked for better data systems — which would actually be helpful! But instead, he fired the messenger. That sends a bad message to the world: it looks like he's trying to control or hide the truth.
If leaders start changing numbers to make things look good instead of being good, that's what dictators do — not what democracies should do. A researcher once showed that countries that fake their growth often look suspiciously brighter in satellite photos at night than their official numbers suggest.
India did well in that test, but we still have problems with collecting accurate data. For example, we're still waiting on the national Census, and some job reports are slow or unclear.
The big lesson? If you want to fix a problem, don't shoot the messenger — fix the system.
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