My god! Once, maybe twice, every 10 years! The villany!
Yeah, they ask for a whole lot more information every April, you know. Then they presume to ask me how much money I make and if I have any kids and do I have a mortgage and do I give to charity and if so how much and do I have any illegal sources of income and blah blah blah.
Well, Hitler used trains to send Jews to Auschwitz. Does this means that we should abhor the continued use of trains and refuse to rid them on those grounds?
The idea of conducting a census dates back to at least 500 BC, and is arguably the most fundamental and useful scientific tool human culture has developed. Much of our understanding of human history comes from census data, and more than anything else, the availability of this information in the Internet Age has caused a huge boom in genealogical research.
It’s a dark world that some of you live in.
I’ve had to fill it out three times in the last seven years. It’s a pain in the ass.
So we disagree, no biggie.
Zsofia, tax forms, AFAIK, are not made public. Obviously, if someone is able to find a great uncle (that not even the grandfather knew about), the census IS made public.
Population schedules of the U.S. Census are made public only after 72 years.
Exactly - grandpa lived to be 91. I guess since people are living longer we might want to extend this whole “census vault” thing, though. The idea is that information should be kept secret for long enough that it won’t affect living people. Grandpa would have been shocked and pretty upset to know that his name on the 1930 census had a “ski” on the end. He and his brother used to take my uncles to the cemetary where his parents were buried, but they had to stay in the car; now they realize it’s because they would have asked questions like “Why is your parents’ name Domanski? Our name is Doman!”
Close, but even in 1952, when that 72-year restriction was created, 72 years was only the average age of death in the U.S., not the 90th percentile or such.
I never had a gun pulled on me. But I did come across the angriest people that I have ever encountered while I was an enumerator. Everyone of them was white (in a slightly majority Hispanic area).
Is this true? If so, I’m absolutely staggered. The US Census completely ignores children under five years of age?
Unless the Census Bureau is making shit up, I don’t see how it could possibly be true.
Yes, please provide a cite for this. Because this link (Warning: PDF) to a document entitled “Population Distribution and Composition, 2000” from the U.S. Census Bureau includes a chart (Figure 2-2. U.S. Age Distribution in Percent: 1990 and 2000) showing the difference in population between the 1990 and 2000 censuses for various age groups, including those under five years of age, those 5-14 years old, 15-24, 25-34 and so on. So if, as you say, they aren’t counting children under five years old, how did they arrive at that chart?
If you will click through to the long form of the 2000 U.S. Census in my post #35, above, you will see that question 1 is “How many people were living or staying in this house, apartment, or mobile home on April 1, 2000?” and question 2 is “Please print the names of all the people who you indicated in question 1 were living or staying here on April 1, 2000.”
That is “all people”, as in “all people”. No age limit.
At question 15, if a person is under the age of 5, you are instructed to skip ahead to question 33, past questions about where the person lived 5 years ago, the person’s employment, income, daily commute to work, armed forces service, etc.
For those who are curious what questions the 2000 U.S. Census short form asked: full name, sex, age, date of birth, whether Spanish/Hispanic/Latino, race, and how the person is related to the person filling out the census form.
Just to be clear: nobody cares about your plumbing. Really.
What is being measured is a census tract’s plumbing. That is, the census is about studying populations, not individuals.
The IRS cares about individual returns: the Census cares about fighting ignorance.
This sounds odd. Maybe you’re one of the very rare people filling out the Census of Housing, or some other small-sample survey.
Hm. That seems to be a misrepresentation of A R Cane’s argument. I’m not sure how mks57 made that leap.
The long form takes 40 minutes to fill out and supports the social infrastructure of this great developed country of ours. There are those who believe that a 40 min contribution to the nation is too much for a sole individual to bear. Others don’t even consider it a sacrifice: the thought doesn’t occur to them.
I’m not saying that those who duck their responsibilities as a citizen are selfish. On the contrary, they fascinate me.
I would be interested in learning how a population Census (as opposed to a small sample telephone survey that the Census makes possible) could be accurately conducted without at least token fines applied to those unwilling to stand up to their civic responsibilities.
Of course they are. I’d add a few other words, too, but this is GQ.
well it seems to me that they could join the 90’s and put this thing online for starters.
then they could auto eliminate most of the form as they discover how many of whatever you have going on of each part/person/whatever.
then people who think this is a great idea could just log on and fill out the form while those of us who are still completely unconvinced can remain ignorant.
so far in this thread I have one poster who used the census for an actual purpose that makes sense.
one poster who discovered his grandpa had a brother…now I am not making a judgment on the poster at all, this is purely my own take (as if I made the same discovery) big friggin hairy deal. what possible reason could I have for caring about this? I do realize that some people are into this kind of thing but I sure as hell aint.
one poster with a good use, one with a (imho) pointless use and then the standard I dont trust the government with my personal info enough to just up and volunteer it. when the war with Ireland starts I personally dont want my name on a nice list telling them where to find me to toss me in a camp. (sounds paranoid, sure, but I would guess the Japanese Americans who filled out the 30 and 40 census forms never expected that result either.)
to each his own, but trying to force someone to comply with this nonsense is way beyond reasonable. with so many people who want to comply I fail to see why they cant just send out a blanket mailer and take what they get.
Huh?
This is probably not REALLY a serious suggestion, but that would of course render the census completely invalid.
More prosaic uses of the census are listed here:
I am looking for that too. I distinctly remember, when the lady came to the house to sit and fill out the form, that I was holding an infant with a 1 year old and four year old running around. She said “We don’t need any information on anyone under five”. Which set off alarm bells as to how they could figure numbers for school and hospitals. There were seven people in the house at the time, it was about 8pm, so it could be she was being lazy. (7x12 pages each)
As for filling it out the other two times it was sent, I received it in the summer both times, and they didn’t send anyone.