Once upon a time, in a world far away, surveying committees were formed with representatives from Heavens and Hell to collect data on the Human realm for assessment of future residency demands. The cosmic laws dictated that this would be done every now and then. The data reports would be submitted to a council of Heaven and Hell Gods' and Demons.
One time, a powerful spirit medium of the Human realm learned that one such committee was about to survey his county, so he went to inform the local magistrate. The medium was so resourceful that he even knew that the committee would make their assessments from watching an hour of local news programme.
The county magistrate rewarded the medium with a lot of money and quickly commissioned a fabricated news programme. He hoped that the committee would think that his beloved people were rich and happy, and save all of them places in Heaven. The News reported about additions of beautiful buildings and parks, new hospitals that treated for free, and a rich vibrant Arts scene. It reported bad weather ahead with a reminder for people to bring extra umbrellas when they go out so that they could lend it to people who forgot to bring umbrellas.
The surveying committee members were impressed by the state of events in the county and were inclined to assess that these people were likely to go to Heaven, as they must have been leading good and honest lives to deserve such a peaceful and prosperous place.
But one of the members, a ghost, who was banished to hell for mistreating poor people, stood up and said, "Wait! Didn't you all notice what was playing during the advertisement break?"
Someone replied that he missed it becuase he went to the toilet. The others were chatting and weren't paying attention, so the ghost rewinded the video tape and pointed out,
"Three commercials were aired during the break. One was on a slimming product. The other two were from competiting pawn shops broadcasting their services. How could this county and society really be doing well when the pawn shops are prospering (at least enough to advertise over television)?"
The magistrate had forgotten to tell the television station to suspend their commercial breaks.
The committee changed their assessment and applauded the vigilant ghost. They said that to his credit, the people in the county would have a place to stay when they eventually end up in Hell.
When they submitted the report, however, the Heaven and Hell Gods' and Demons reprimmanded the committee for their biased data collection. They were supposed to make independent observations, and not recommend if the people should be routed to Heaven or Hell.
The Gods and Demons said that in times of prosperity, there might be a high chance for greed and corruption to proliferate, so a lot of people might be sent to Hell. In times of poverty, there might be a lot of opportunities for people to show compassion and kindness, so a lot of people might go to Heaven.
The committee was sent back to collect data, and they were forbidden to do so from watching television, so they read newspapers instead.
