The interesting thing about data is not the “what.” It’s the “so what?”

As a case in point, this graph shows US government spending on document shredding contracts, which amounted to $452,807 in 2000 and ballooned to $2.9 million in 2006.

Now, one could suppose that the cost of shredding has skyrocketed. Maybe the shredding workers unionized for higher salaries and company cars. From the data alone, you couldn’t rule this out.

Of course we know enough about the current political climate to understand what’s really behind the data.

For more, visit usapending.gov, the government’s brand new and utterly fascinating database of federal spending.