Mobilewalla used cellphone data to estimate the demographics of protesters

Re:Mobilewalla used cellphone data to estimate the demograph... by Chathamization on Friday June 26, 2020 @04:43PM (#23656801)

This a good example of misleading data. For instance, the school district budget doesn't appear because it's part of the budget for LA County not LA City. But If you look at it[1] and adjust per capita, you actually get almost twice the budget as the police. It also leaves out that a very large part of these budgets are pensions.

But beyond that, I've always felt that the attitude of "this is a lot of money, therefore we should cut it" to be a poor way of approaching things. We should allocate funds based on whether or not the return we get is worth it, not based on whether or not the number we invest sounds big. Cutting specific things that are unnecessary or saving money by making things more efficient seem like a good idea, but cutting budgets just to say that you're cutting budgets doesn't.

[1] https://achieve.lausd.net/cms/lib/CA01000043/Centricity/Doma...

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Re:Mobilewalla used cellphone data to estimate the demograph... by godelski on Friday June 26, 2020 @04:49PM (#23656856)

It's funny, because I actually agree with you

> I've always felt that the attitude of "this is a lot of money, therefore we should cut it" to be a poor way of approaching things. We should allocate funds based on whether or not the return we get is worth it

The difference is I think: "When we're scrutinizing budgets we should look at the largest ones first." Which would be a pretty logical way to investigate.

So pretty much we're in agreement.

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