There’s a famous line by Mark Twain that goes,
“There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned
lies and statistics.” Given that less than glowing
endorsement by one of America’s greatest
writers and wits, the results of the Ellenville Journal’s
and the Ellenville-Wawarsing Chamber of Commerce’s
survey are in.
One hundred and forty-seven people from
around the area took the time to weigh in on a series
of questions regarding the economic conditions
of the area and what local government should do to
remedy the situation. The actual results from all of
the survey’s questions are available on page 6 in this
week’s edition.
While the Ellenville Journal makes no claim
of having performed a scientific survey, we feel that
some results in particular deserve serious consideration
and should be heeded.
When asked about whether Ellenville and
Wawarsing officials should work together, 91% of
those responding thought that they should at least
“sometimes work together”, while 80% felt “they
should definitely work together”. Only 4% of respondents
thought that the municipalities should work independently
of each other.
When asked if they were in favor of creating an
Office of Economic Development that would be jointly
funded by Ellenville and Wawarsing, 79% of respondents
were either “strongly” or “somewhat” in favor.
Perhaps even more telling was the question that
asked if people would support the Economic Development
Officer if it meant a raise in taxes. 40% said
they would agree to a tax increase if it meant that the
municipalities would finance an economic development
office.
The survey’s most interesting results dealt with
how each respondent viewed the state of the local
economy and how they viewed their own economic
status. 94% of those who took the survey said that the
local economy was in “fair” to “poor” shape. However,
when each person was asked about their individual
economic status 88% felt that they were in “fair” to
“excellent” shape. What does this disparity mean?
Perhaps it is due to the fact that the EWCOC
mailed paper ballots to its membership; skewing the
results toward the aims and concerns of local businesses
while the people they employ or the unemployed
would have very different responses to a number
of the questions asked in this survey.
But the issue of whether the survey is unfairly
skewed towards business owners works both ways
since a number of local business owners may not live
in the village or town and therefore have little or no
power to change the internal political structures of either
municipality.
It would be foolish to consider these numbers as
the final answers. Instead, they appear to be leading to
newer, more difficult questions.
Lies. Damned lies. Statistics.
