The Importance of Reliable Numbers

Macario Schettino says that Mexico's relatively recently developed capacity to measure progress or lack thereof in a number of different areas --crime, growth, education, et cetera-- is one of the major achievements of the nation's modern history:

Although part of the explanation for why today we have information has to do with technology, undoubtedly the principal reason isn't that, but rather the disappearance of the authoritarian regime. Thanks to that, with all of the deficiencies that are holding us back, we have information about what is happening in Mexico, and part of that comes from the society itself and not official sources. Better still, there are now legal procedures for information and transparency, and an organism, the IFAI, that allows us to force the (federal) authorities to inform us. It is not a perfect law, nor is the IFAI perfect. Nothing is. But the change that we have achieves is no slouch.

[Break]

To confront these groups, information is fundamental, and for that you have to appreciate how much we have advanced, and make an effort to achieve what still remains: fiscal information, management of public money in the unions, in the campesino centers and in the universities, transparency in the media outlets, to name a few.

We take reliable numbers for granted on any number of different subjects, from industrial output to those killed by organized crime. It's really weird to think that not so long ago, much of that didn't exist.