Aside from knowing how many citizens there are in each Congressional district, the rest of the junk in the Census basically justifies so and so’s federal bureaucracy.
The Census actually gets together with the other bureacrats to ask what questions should be on the next long form.
Check out the questions on annual energy spending, no doubt from the dullards at DOE. Most people’s energy consumption follows an annual bell shaped curve for cooling and an inverted bell for heating. Only a bureaucrat would think of asking for an annual average.
The Census Bureau also keeps tabs on the market research firms that purchase the raw census data and then re-sell it in the private sector, usually combined with other non-governmental data. I wonder if they are the one’s that keep asking about full service bathrooms.
Liberal or conservative, the real argument should be that aside from re-districting legislative seats, is there any purpose to the rest of the long form data.
If the long form did not exist, government (and those research firms that package the Census data) would be compelled to use the same sampling techniques that the private sector uses all the time.
Well, yesterday was April 1st, so yesterday was when I filled out my census form and promptly placed it in the mailbox for the mailman to pick up an hour later.
Here is what I gave them: Number of persons in household as of April 1st? 1
Then I skipped to the last page and found a place for a comment back to them, which simply stated, “What part of the Constitution do you not understand?”
‘The Census Bureau also keeps tabs on the market research firms that purchase the
raw census data and then re-sell it in the private sector’
Census data is free. You can get it on the web anytime. There is one from 90 you can access & several smaller ones since then.
The questions are important. Suppose your city reports to the gov that they have 200,000 people. Then the census reports you only have 150,000 people, so the gov must adjust what monies they give to your city.
If the census finds the average rent in your city is $800 per month they can use that when they provide housing grants.
An update… I called the census bureau and asked them to send me another form. My hope was that I would get the short form instead of the intrusive long form. I did. The short form still has a couple of questions that bug me (I still don’t understand why there is such an emphasis on Hispanics), but I am going to fill it out and send it in. That has to make you bleeding hearts happy! I still don’t think they need to know my name or my phone number, but I will tell them how many people that live here… and that we are not hispanic.
I feel kind of powerless in the presence of people who find it funny to fill in their race as human on a census form, but I’ll try to give this a shot. Since most aspects of this problem have already been answered, I’ll just chip in on EnigmaOne’s analogy…
I’d ask you where you get the idea that secure servers are easy to hack, but I have a feeling this is just a side effect of the media craze over hackers and what not. If you are actually submitting information to a secure server, is it nigh impossible for any third party to intercept and discover the contents of your post while it is in transmission. Frankly speaking, submitting any information to a secure server is probably safer than by mail, telephone, or even in person. I think the problem here all boils down to a mistrust of your information carrier, and that is hardly a reason to reject the census.
May I remind your convenience is not the only thing at stake here. You have neglected to mention the benefits that will come forward in the event that you do submit this information, and the resulting loss of benefit which cannot be undone if you don’t submit said information. Let me extend your example slightly to demonstrate my point. Suppose your son has just had an accident in some foreign country and has just been admitted to some hospital’s emergency room. Suppose your son’s friend calls you up and informs you of this situation. Suppose your son’s life has been saved for now, but a critical and expensive operation must be performed to make sure he lives on, and that the hospital refuses to do this for free and demands that you wire them your money before a single finger is lifted. Suppose that your son only has a couple of hours left, and a snow storm outside has forced your local banks to close. But wait, your bank has a website, and they allow you to wire money to anyone you want in the world. What will you do? Will you be willing to submit your phone number, name, credit card number, and your password to this website so you can save your son’s life? I understand that this is a far stretch from your original analogy, but please understand that I am only trying to point out the flaw in this particular line of logic. Perhaps the government isn’t entitled to know how much time you spend commuting to work, but does the possibility of this information leaking out and cause damage (what damage by the way?) really outweigh the real benefits you will gain? Is it worth it to use your and everyone else’s tax money to pay someone to come down to your house five times in a row and still not get this information? Is the satisfaction of knowing some government employee will be rolling his eyes back for the 10,000th time when he reads the 10,000th census form with the race=human on it worth it?
who gives a rat’s ass how much your income is? or what kinda car you drive? maybe you make $25,000 a year, maybe you make $250,000 a year… how is someone knowing this information a threat to you?
let’s take bill gates for instance (pretty much everyone knows who he is, and he’s just so fun to pick on). you know where he works, what his job title is, what his net worth is, that he is married, has a child, is battling an antitrust trial, etc., etc., etc… yet knowing all of this, can any of this be a threat to him? i doubt it.
so some temporary government worker making 12 bucks an hour is not going to give a shit when they see on paper that john doe makes $50,000 a year and drives 15 miles to work. or that jane doe is employed by denny’s and drives an 83 honda civic hatchback making $15000 a year plus tips.
Back in 1970, at the ripe old age of 12, I filled out the census form for my family because I thought it would be fun. It was a long form and it asked questions about family income, toilets (which I thought was quite funny at the time) and modes of transportation, etc. My parents helped me with some of the questions and we sent it in.
In 1980, I was in college and, sure enough, the Census sent me a form (short). I filled it out and sent it in.
In 1990, I was married and working. Like clockwork, I received a Census form (short), filled it out and sent it in.
In 2000, I am still married, still working and I now have two children. I received the Census form (short), filled it out, sent it in.
So far the jack-booted thugs of the international one-world conspiracy haven’t kicked in my door, raped my wife and sold my children into slavery. When the black helicopters arrive, though, I’ll let y’all know. I should be easy to find since I sent the Census all that sensitive information.