I work with statistics on a daily basis. I look at all kinds of data for students. We look at standardized test scores, achievement scores, benchmark testing, Then, we look at data from diagnosticians, LSSPs, specialists, curriculum coaches, and occasional outside experts. Then, when I go home I pour through comprehensive baseball statistics and football statistics. Then, yesterday I was perusing X, Twitter, or whatever the hell it wants to be called today.

Biden won 477 counties
Trump won 2,497 counties

Who do you think won the election?

Something isn’t adding up.

— Brigitte Gabriel (@ACTBrigitte) August 21, 2023

We have seen this the past three years in a number of different places. More people attended Trump’s rallies. More people have Trump merchandise. People are more enthusiastic Trump supporters than Biden supporters. Trump received more votes in 2020 than he did in 2016. We see this kind of logic from sports fans. My team gained more yards than their team. My team had more hits and baserunners than their team. My team had a better shooting percentage than their team. These things may be true and often are. They prove nothing. It is the final score that matters. Certainly, secondary numbers can inform our strategy moving forward, but could you imagine Philadelphia Eagles fans suggesting they really won the Super Bowl because of some obscure stat they led in? It’s pure madness.

Historically, we saw an extreme version of the above. England used to use a system known as virtual representation. Voting districts didn’t change, so there were literally places where there were no people, yet those places had a representative. They were called rotten boroughs. This system even played a role in the coming revolution in the Americas. Ironically, we are getting close to that today. Harris county has nearly five million residents. Loving county in west Texas has 58 people as of 2023. In Brigette’s world they are the same. We’ve all seen electoral map where seemingly the entire country is painted red with the exception of the major cities. Land doesn’t vote. People vote. If you take away the red paint from the areas that don’t have people then we notice how much the map turns blue.

California has more than 38 million people as of 2023. Connecticut has 3.6 million people and ranks 29th in population. If you add together states 30 through 50 you wind up pretty close to the population of California. California has two senators. Those states get 40 combined. The two parties are very much divided along urban and rural lines. Smart sports teams utilize statistics as a way to improve their overall performance. If I’m good at shooting threes then I want to shoot more threes. If I am better at running the football then I want to run the football more. If my bullpen is better than my rotation then I want to maximize my bullpen. These teams don’t zero in on stats to prove they really won. The final score tells us who won. They use those stats to inform their strategy moving forward.

The GOP could use these numbers they are wielding to inform strategy, but instead they are suggesting they really won. Biden couldn’t have won. He didn’t hold big rallies. He didn’t sell a bunch of merch. Smaller counties went for Trump and the map is glowing red. The trouble is that none of these things really matter. Democrats and independents could honestly care less about merch and being more obnoxious than our opponent. We just voted in larger numbers for Joe Biden. It happens when the other candidate is a bloviating jackass.

You couldn’t have set up the punchline any better. Our parish priest announced that the bishop was lifting the dispensation on attending mass virtually. So, no more live streaming of mass. No more simulcasts over the radio. Of course, that came with the usual caveats about health and what not. The punchline? Half of the choir was out with COVID and the high school confirmation night had been cancelled due to COVID. I guess irony isn’t lost on the church.

It was that moment that hit me like a ton of bricks. All of us desperately want to be back to normal. No one likes quarantine. No one likes masks. No one likes getting two rounds of shots and then a third. No one likes rapid tests or blood tests or antibody tests or any other kind of test. Some don’t like it and so they don’t do it. So, he we are.

A friend posted on Facebook about the unemployment rate and it created quite the stir. Unemployment rates are based on the number of people actively seeking employment. If I stop looking for whatever reason then I no longer count. That is a stark contrast with counting the number of people actually working. In 2019, 157.54 million people were working. In 2021, that number dropped to 152.72 million. If you click on the link you’ll notice that 2020 was even lower.

When you have competing numbers it becomes important to talk about context. Clearly, there is a gap between the number of people seeking jobs (which is historically low) and the number of people actually working. Understanding the gap is the key to understanding everything. I really can only speak intelligently about my industry. There is a huge teacher shortage throughout the state of Texas and nationwide. COVID plays a role in that, but it isn’t necessarily the only thing.

It would be more accurate to say there are a variety of factors that have come together to create this situation. COVID simply was a catalyst in bringing these factors all together. Suddenly, hundreds if not thousands of teachers realized they were being asked to do the impossible. Student to teacher ratios were increasing, more pressure was coming from on high about test scores, and support from the central office and from the average home was dwindling. Add that to a pandemic and the need to somehow socially distance 30 children while teaching an interactive lesson without people interacting and it was enough for thousands to throw in the towel.

This is just education. Those in other industries could tell their own tales. Working for a living involves trade offs. We all work for an income and that income allows us to afford certain things. Yet, we exchange some risk in return. That risk takes the form of stress, aggravation, and certainly our time. When those costs become too high then workers will decline the paycheck and live with the consequences of that decision.

Meanwhile, many on the employer side are waiting with bated breath like the bishop. They are waiting for that special day when everything will go back to the way it had always been. Like the bishop, they fail to see the irony of that belief system. We can certainly choose to believe what we want to believe about whether this change is a good or bad thing. If we want, we can call workers lazy and ungrateful for the opportunities they have. We can call employers greedy and unwilling to change with the changing times. Maybe it took COVID to create this new reality, but it doesn’t change what is. Somehow we will have to manage.