I was thinking of starting a census thread but mostly because, having taken the necessary 60 seconds to fill it out yesterday, I have a hard time understanding what all the frothing-at-the-mouth crowd is so upset about.
The census form asks the following Highly Confidential Questions:
- How many people live at this address.
- Name, birthdate/age and race of each of the people in (1).
- Phone number in case we don’t understand any of your responses.
And that’s basically it. No questions about nationality, citizenship, immigration status, gun ownership, political affiliation…nothing but the above bits of info. And for people who object on whatever grounds to the “race” question you can check “other” and write “Human”.
As to the privacy aspects of it, I wish that every business I had dealings with had a privacy policy as clear as the US Census data, which was pretty clearly and unambiguously spelled out:
a. Your census data cannot be used for anything other than statistical purposes.
b. Your census data cannot be used against you in court.
c. Your census data cannot be provided to other agencies including the IRS and FBI.
d. Your census data cannot be disclosed via a Freedom Of Information Act.
e. Your census data will remain private for 72 years. Assuming that most posters on this board are adults, odds are that you will have died before your census data is made available.
This is a better policy than every store you go to which asks for your name, address, phone number, want to be on our mailing list, oh come on sure you want to be on our mailing list, can we provide your personal info to everyone who will pay us a nickel and oh be one of the cool crowd and be on our mailing list.
I’m not seeing the hideous invasion of privacy, one world government, totalitarian takeover and other weirdness that some folks are concerned about.
There’s even a card telling you who to call for help in a dozen or so different languages if you have any questions.
I don’t think I have ever seen a simpler, more straightforward form from any government agency, local, state or federal.