The census
My rep. says the census goes too far:
But for U.S. Rep. John J. Duncan Jr., the detailed questionnaire the U.S. Census Bureau sends out to thousands of households every month is a little too Orwellian. It’s too intrusive, he said, and poses too many questions that are none of the government’s business.
“It seems to me that is Big Brother type of government,” the Knoxville Republican said.
I’d ignore it anyway. The whole agency is make-work jobs who need stuff to do the nine years they’re not working on the constitutionally required census. And I’ve had a few clients who get those monthly manufacturing reports. Those are such a waste of time.
May 15th, 2012 at 9:26 am
The crazy thing is the way they conduct this. They do some interviews – I took one on behalf of my father after he was under hospice care.
If this is how the government tracks statistics, then those stats are wrong. (Quick without looking at a checkbook, how much was your average electric bill for the past 3 months?) insanity.
May 15th, 2012 at 11:44 am
When you give a mouse a cookie….
The intrusive nature of the Census Bureau’s questionnaire is absolutely necessary – because of the intrusive nature of the federal government into every aspect of everyone’s lives. From health care to education to business operations and employment and welfare and so on and so on and so on, the government needs to know everything about everyone because it has taken unto itself the authority to control, adjudicate, or mandate everything imaginable about everyone.
When only self-reported data becomes “factual” because it is on a census survey, that data is of course not just suspect but very likely incorrect.
May 15th, 2012 at 11:53 am
I have the same reaction the the Tennessee Use Tax. None of their business what I bought online unless I wish to claim a lower sales tax rate on some item.
They’d probably collect more if all you had to do is report x number of dollars in purchases over some period, pay your 9+% tax and then they go away because they bother you.
May 15th, 2012 at 12:52 pm
The last census taker I dealt with appeared uninvited, and startled me while I was using my backhoe.
We had a short conversation regarding my lack of interest in filling out census forms or answering her questions. She accused me of being “short sighted.”
I asked her how short-sighted she was, given that she’d walked past two “No Trespassing” signs on my gate.
That ended our discussion.
May 15th, 2012 at 2:57 pm
And one wonders, with the dearth of knowledge of statistics, econometrics, and science shown on this blog, why the US’s credit rating is what it is….
May 15th, 2012 at 7:55 pm
Unintended (?) Consequence:
If the census is made sufficiently intrusive such that pro-privacy, anti-big-government-thinking people avoid it…
States with an above-average percentage of such people will be under-apportioned Representatives in the U.S. House.
May 15th, 2012 at 8:11 pm
The Feds already know how many of me there are, where I live, how much I make, whether or not I’m a minority, whether or not I’m married and how many kids—if any—live in my home. And that’s just thanks to the IRS. Why do they need to pester me with a stoopid census?
May 16th, 2012 at 1:14 am
Never answer the Census American Community Survey. I got it a while back (first a post card notification that it was coming, then three surveys, and finally visits from an arrogant census worker). The ACS is more probing than a visit to a proctologist and will be used to raise your taxes for more wonderful governmental programs.