Hacker News Reader

The metrics we select and how we measure them is an inherently political thing.

How we measure inflation is a great example of this, we choose to include some things, but exclude others because if we had a true measure of inflation, the government would have to pay out more for social security payments (see Boskin commission - https://www.ssa.gov/history/reports/boskinrpt.html)

View on HN

I think kelseyfrog has it better with the term 'subjective' rather than 'political.' Different people will have different morals and different views of what a well operating society looks like. It does not mean they are political, just different.

To add, in fact, labeling one's opponent's message as "political" is a subjectivizing speech act. The intent is nearly always to discredit. I wish this wasn't true, but I've been on the internet long enough to see this pattern play out hundreds of times (no I'm not citing sources for this, and no, I'm not making an absolutist statement where a single counterexample refutes it - it's about tendencies :) )

Reply on news.ycombinator.com