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It would be crazy if this is just some long term strategy by the FBI to make themselves look good. Each year they publish juiced figures that the media can gush over then later on they retract the juiced figures. Retracting the juiced figures is necessary because otherwise each year the FBI would have to make progressively larger adjustments until juicing was no longer feasible.
Aren't organizations incentivized to make the problem they're fighting look worse? Students reach new lows on standardized tests - give more funding to schools; We're falling behind in a particular field of research - give more money for researchers; No one wants to pay for elite art - subsidize elite art; More generally, if you express even the faintest interest in supporting a charity or a nonprofit, they will bombard you with newsletters about how terrible things are, and how the world will end if you don't send them money RIGHT NOW!
And correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't most of these crimes outside of FBI jurisdiction to begin with?
Whoever those fudged numbers are supposed to make look better, it's probably not the FBI, and outside political pressure seems pretty likely, especially when we know for a fact it goes unpunished in the event it's discovered, and undisputable.
It's weird how that happens. We should do the opposite. When a problem gets worse, we should defund and replace the failing organizations who are responsible. (For example, San Francisco area homeless orgs).
On the other hand, when organizations succeed we should give them more money (For example, SpaceX).
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