I Wish I Know The Answer To These Questions

The advances in Big Data processing lead me to the following. Some answers that I wish I knew. It seems to me, many of our social problems can be managed better if we only had the supporting data.

- Apr. 2017

In the election of 2016, one area of contention is the idea of possible voter fraud. Some have claimed it may have swayed the results. Others claim the popular vote was inflated by voter fraud in the State of California. I guess we will never know.

It got me thinking. Why don't we have a better handle on our voting system? We should know who exactly is voting and whether the voters are legal citizens. Our laws are clear. Only citizens of the US without criminal records and over the age of 18 are allowed to vote.

One way to insure a proper voting result is with voter ID. Some States require the voter to show an ID in order to vote, However, our courts has ruled asking for an ID is too restrictive. It could be perceived as voter suppression.

It seems to me here is where Big Data processing could offer some assistance. It can help answer the question about voter fraud. How prevalent is it? And whether it can sway election results one way or another.

The solution is this. We can allow our national databases to be accessed by a private, independent company. One that has the processing power and the algorithm to deal with this problem. They can combine the election data and cross reference them with our Social Security data, our immigration data and our criminal justice prison records. They can answer the question of how many votes are illegally cast by each State and how they voted? This will answer the question of how prevalent illegal voting is and whether it can affect the outcome of a close election.

In addition to the question raised above of what percent of people voted illegally, here are some other questions that I want answers to.

• What is the true unemployment rate?
• How many undocumented immigrants are here in the US?
• What percent of our prison population are illegal aliens?
• How many people are truly disabled? As compared to people on disability.
• How many people's identity have been compromised?
• What percent of people pay income taxes?
• What percent of the population does not read or speak English?

What does it matter? The answers I believe will help us deal with problems that have been ignored for too long. For whatever the reason, our government has gone out of its way to not keep tract of these data. They should be readily available and yet we don't have a good handle on them. Why?

Our country has been struggling with many challenges on many fronts. From immigration to healthcare to education to welfare and entitlements, we have a difference of opinion between the two parties. Our country is experiencing deficits year after year even though our tax revenue is at a record high. This condition cannot continue at the current path.

By getting the answers to some of the above questions, it is hoped that we can resolve some of our differences. How about it Google? Will you help find the answers?

The current official unemployment rate as reported by the Department of Labor Statistics is 4.5%. We all know this number is bogus. It under counts people who have given up looking for work and those who have dropped off the unemployment benefit roll.

The definition of unemployment is those who are able bodied people who are able and willing to work but are currently out of work.

We can use Big Data processing to get at a more accurate number.

Here is a formula for how to do it.

Formula: ( 1 - W / (P - NA)) * 100 = UE rate

W - is the total number of people working.

P - is the toal population of working age.

NA - is the sum of all people unable to work or choose not to work. Included are people on disability, people incarcerated, people in school or some training program, people who are volunteers or unpaid interns, people who choose not to work, and people in transition between jobs...

UE - the True unemployment rate as definded above.

The hardest part of this calculation is getting at W. This is where Big Data can help. Determine the total of people working includes all government employees and the military, all people on salary in private industry, all people that are business owners, all people who are working at home or self employed, all people working in farms, all people working in the cash economy.

The last piece of data we need to capture is the number of people who are Part Time workers. The unemployment rate can only tell if someone is employed or not but cannot tell if someone is working 40 hours a week or 20 hours a week.

Again Big Data should be able to help here. We should be able to determine how many of the W are only P/T workers.