Time for the National Social Science Observatory.

The proposal was made more than fifty years ago that we have such an observatory. The plan was to have a sample of locations in the U.S. where an observer would make regular and periodic records of everything on their block. Like how many Christmas decorations were on the outside of the houses. Like how many cars parked in front of their garage the previous night. Like, the number of window boxes planted with floors.

Over time, social scientists would have a data base of actual behavior on a reasonable scale to begin understanding social phenomenon.

The time has come.

By my rough calculation, the Internet has made the cost of such an observatory feasible. We could have 1,000 randomly selected addresses, chosen to be observers. We would pay each observer $20 every two weeks to fill in a questionnaire online. The questionnaire would have about 40 questions, 36 that don’t change unless the data changes (like the number of cars parked in front of their garage). The administrative cost would be about $.5 million a year for a total cost of $1 million.

Within two years, the observatory would be paying for itself by selling parts of the data to commercial market research firms.