# So this is why we are in a recession!

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-this-is-why-we-are-in-a-recession/193850>\
**Category:** The BBQ Pit\
**Created:** [August 8, 2003, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-this-is-why-we-are-in-a-recession/193850 "2003-08-08T16:59:52Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Binarydrone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3da27b/32.png) [@Binarydrone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Binarydrone)\
**Post date:** [August 8, 2003, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-this-is-why-we-are-in-a-recession/193850/1 "2003-08-08T16:59:52Z")

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Background: I work for a software company that makes statistical analysis software. This is used by many businesses to crunch numbers after gathering data from satisfaction surveys and such. A lot of financial decisions that some pretty big companies make is based on the reports that our software generates (based on this data).

What astonishes me is several things. How much of my job centers around helping people misrepresent data to their bosses, the on average native intelligence of the folks that are gathering and compiling the material on which multi-million dollar decisions will be made and finally how widespread this is

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**Author:** ![UncleBeer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/977dab/32.png) [@UncleBeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBeer)\
**Post date:** [August 8, 2003, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-this-is-why-we-are-in-a-recession/193850/2 "2003-08-08T17:10:56Z")

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Ummm, is there supposed to be more to this post? It seems to end rather . . . abruptly.

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**Author:** ![Binarydrone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3da27b/32.png) [@Binarydrone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Binarydrone)\
**Post date:** [August 8, 2003, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-this-is-why-we-are-in-a-recession/193850/3 "2003-08-08T17:16:00Z")

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Not really, just a mini-rant intended to spark discussion(although I notice that I forgot the period at the end of my sentence).

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**Author:** ![Cheesesteak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheesesteak/32/3694_2.png) [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)\
**Post date:** [August 8, 2003, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-this-is-why-we-are-in-a-recession/193850/4 "2003-08-08T17:22:20Z")

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This sort of crap is rampant. In my company people will go through outrageous lengths to:  
get money transferred to other divisions  
get revenue transferred to their division  
lower the stated costs for some service we’re selling  
push money from one month to another

None of which does a DAMN thing to help our underlying financial situation, or make our products more competitive/profitable. I keep thinking, if they spent that kind of effort on lowering our REAL bills, we’d be swimming in profit.