???
do temporary census workers get paid by the hour or the address?
You guys are quick! I mean, sure, the English section was easy, but it took me forever to work my way through the Spanish part.
While I’d be glad to provide a citation, would it really change your mind?
Man, I hope it wasn’t graded.
Hour.
We also get mileage for using our own vehicles.
I had trouble with the analogy section myself. Does anyone know if it’s like the SAT where you lose points for the wrong answer?
Put “Indy Car.”
So eat something already.
Care to explain?
I don’t have the book handy anymore, but everyone who does mail based survey research for marketing and research reasons has found that followups work wonders. Presumably it taps the “oh, i meant to do that, I just forgot” crowd.
My only complaint* is that the the “10 Questions…” they’re on about is actually false advertising. It’s actually 4+(6**x*), where x is the number of residents in the household.
*: Not an actual complaint, just a humorous observation.
Check, The enumerated power to conduct the Census is in Article I, Section 2:
Actually, if the study were done in a meaningful way, yes. I’m not stupid, It just does not seem like there would be a good return on investment in this setting. I know people who are rabidly against the Census. They will not return it. They would not fill it out if they received weekly mailings. Maybe there are enough people “on the cusp” who would be persuaded by the mailing, I don’t know. That’s why I asked for a cite. You say you have read information that supports there being a worthwhile response, but if you hadn’t are you telling me it is self evident?
Oh, and:
Why the fuck would you presume it wouldn’t?
There was an interesting article in our local paper today. Parts of some counties in the extreme northern part of Wisconsin had such a poor initial response (less than 50%) in the last census that they have decided not to mail the forms, but scheduled a personal visit to each address. The theory is that so many addresses are seasonally occupied and they need to determine just which ones; the owners might not live there year-round, but the census doesn’t want to assume that without proof.
I sent mine back but The Census main objective seemed to be trying to find out your race. They gave so many choices. I felt like leaving that part blank.
I’m way more scared of the IRS than the Census people, and I figure the IRS already knows way more about me than the Census ever will, so why worry?
Though I did think the whole section on what variety of Hispanic you might be was…weird. Why not have all of that under the other question about race? I can understand why for statistical purposes the race/background question is useful, like it or not, though my sympathy lies with the “human” answerers.
Where I live we don’t have mail delivery, so no letter a week or two ahead. It was hanging from my doorknob when I got home from work. OMG, they know where I live!!!
Sure. The emphasis on self-defining as a race or sub-set within a racial category is used to direct government money and services toward those groups. These policies reinforce and perpetuate divisions within society.
Even though the programs targeted toward racial sub-sets are meant to benefit rather than harm those groups, it is still by definition discrimination. From here:
"treatment or consideration of, or making a distinction in favor of or against, a person or thing based on the group, class, or category to which that person or thing belongs rather than on individual merit: "
It is my viewpoint that this targeted discrimination is detrimental to society as a whole.
So leave the race portion blank.
That’s an issue in parts of Pennsylvania, too. One of the things my team had to do was to visit gated communities to find out how many of them catered to seasonal occupants, and to ask the community management to encourage subletters to fill out their forms.
kayaker, think of Census participation as a graduated range. There are people who love the Census and would fill out a dozen forms if asked. They’re also good about encouraging their family and friends to participate and have helped with PR efforts. There are people who hate the Census and who will happily chase the enumerator off with a shotgun. Those are the black and white ends of the range. The Census is concerned with the ones in the middle: The people who have no reasons not to cooperate, but may forget to send it back, or who think they’re supposed to wait for a visit from an enumerator (This is actually quite common for the elderly; they’re used to that and don’t understand why it’s on a paper form that they mail back.), or what have you. The letter that went out last week was a gentle reminder to expect the form and to fill it out and send it back. That’s all it was.
This seems like an angle that would get a lot of traction. Fill out your census form and we’ll mail you a cheque for $56. (Otherwise, we’ll spend that $56 coming to your door and you’ll get $0).