"Six months after giving birth to a cluster of nebulous Sustainable Development Goals that aim to dramatically change the economic, social and environmental course of the planet, the United Nations is working on a drastic renovation of global data gathering to measure progress against its sweeping international agenda."

"The result that emerged late last week from the U.N. Statistical Commission -- an obscure body of national experts that calls itself the “apex entity of the international statistics system” -- is a document as sprawling, undefined and ambitious as the sustainable Development Goals, or SDGs, themselves -- which  lay out 17 goals and 169 sometimes overlapping targets to transform global society."

"In attempting to cover at least some of that ground, the so-called “draft global indicators framework” likely will add huge new volumes of information that governments collect as they measure progress toward what amounts to a global socialist or progressive agenda.* "

"To the extent that the indicators are adopted or incorporated by national governments, such as that of the U.S., they will also provide a powerful reorientation of public debate as they filter into academic and policy discussions."