When the best available data is put into a transparent model that is widely available, bad data is identified and can be improved over time. Decisions can t be stopped while someone cleans up all the national data, and it does not seem prudent to revert to mental models. A structured, transparent model using the best available data is always better than the hidden data and assumptions in mental models. In fact, the lower the quality of the data, the more important it is to put the data in a transparent computer model to expose, test, and evaluate it. Only in this manner can the data problems and their importance be exposed, the assumptions cataloged and clarified, and incentives created to improved the data for next year.
Data are always imperfect, even in industrialized countries.
By using data and demonstrating its importance and limitations, we can motivate the long, difficult process of improving the data. Participatory democracy requires continued improvement in data, and this improvement is possible only when the data limitations are exposed through using the data in transparent models. T21 is not for making long-term predictions. T21 is for evaluating alternative policy choices. While no one can predict the long-term future with precision, policy makers must make decisions regularly based on the best information available about the future consequences of their current decisions.