Quote Originally Posted by bu villain View Post
Sure, a 9 of 17 is a majority. Can't argue with that math. What I am arguing about is that it is a meaningless sampling and will probably mislead people into thinking that a majority OF ALL ECONOMISTS feel that way. Hey I just asked three people on the street who they were voting for and they said Obama. Would it be responsible for me to write an article and title it "100% of Georgians plan to vote for Obama"?

It's as meaningful as the way the job numbers are polled.
If you looked at the percentage that those 17 make up of all professional US economists, and looked at the percentaged of those polled on the job rate against all individuals over 18 in the US, I suspect that the percentage would be greater on the polled economists. There aren't that many well-known and well-respected economists, and there are a lot of people eligilbe for work in the US. Yet, some people have no problem with the small sampling for the job numbers - when they support their political position.