March 25, 2010
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So I was listening to the Kevin & Bean show and a topic came up that caught me off-guard. Apparently there’s a backlash against the U.S. Census? There’s an actual movement to NOT fill out the census form? You know the form that can help your community get it’s fair share of funding for the things it needs – like better schools, hospitals, roads, etc… Is that not something people want to have? What’s going on? Why is this even an issue? Has there always been an issue about the census 10 years ago? 20 years? 50 years? I understand that the USA right now is knee deep in this stupid Democrats vs Republicans political B.S. but c’mon now. There is no government conspiracy involving the census, and this is not “more government intrusion.” Does everyone think that the goverment is out to get them? Give me a break.
Look, the census only has 10 main questions. Without going into too much detail, here they are listed below, for you to decide on whether this is a bad thing or not.
1) How many people were living or staying in this residence on April 1, 2010?
2) Were there any additional people staying here April 1, 2010 that you did not include in Question 1?
3) Is this house, apartment, or mobile home – (owned, rented, etc….)
4) What is your telephone number?
5) What is Person 1′s name?
6) What is Person 1′s sex?
7) What is Person 1′s age and date of birth?
8) Is Person 1 of Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish origin?
9) What is Person 1′s race?
10) Does Person 1 sometimes live or stay somewhere else?
* If more people were counted in Question 1, continue with Person 2′s questions *Now does that look like such a big deal? For everybody who thinks the U.S. Census is just another step towards the end of the world. Get a grip of yourselves! Seriously now…
You can listen to that particular Kevin & Bean segment here…
- Why You Will Not Fill Out Your Census Form-2010-03-24-Listener Call-in.mp3How well is your community participating with the 2010 Census?
- http://2010.census.gov/2010census/take10map/
Comments (7)
wellllllllllll it doesn’t help that on their *reminder* postcards, they mention that it’s “THE LAW” to fill it out. threatening people to get things done seems to be the new technique with the gov’t even when they’re trying to convince you that it’s for your sake.
also, if it were for statistical reasons, they shouldn’t have to ask for names, birthdays, telephone numbers…age and head count alone should be enough. *shrugs* unless they’re actually cross referencing it to double check if people are lying, in which case they should just do that instead of waste OUR time and tax payer’s money with all those mailings/advertisements.
@kalamai - Mentioning that it’s THE LAW isn’t even a new technique at all, as it’s always been that way. I also don’t think the government has ever really enforced this law much either.
Asking for names, birthdays, and telephone numbers are just reasons to hold people accountable for their answers, but I don’t believe the government will spend the time and money to actually double check for accuracy (but if it’s needed…. dunh dunh dunh). Any use of that information is held in strict confidentiality with penalties for abuse, not unlike signing up for any service around where the ask for these same exact questions.
It’s hardly a waste of our time either, as it’s ONLY ten questions. If we go with one minute per question, then is ten minutes too much effort to give your community a chance to get more funding for the important stuff it needs?
It’s far cheaper for our tax payer’s money to get direct answers from the community via the census, than having the government spend more time and money trying to figure out the accurate answers themselves. A simple head count does not cut it. It’s no different than the government asking us to vote.
The next step would be for them to use the internet instead of the mail to make things convenient, but that’s always been an iffy solution (look how that’s progressing with voting).
The fact still stands that communities LOSE funding, when the participation of the census does not reflect the actual needs of the community.
Eh, still pointless to me to state that it’s the law to complete it if they don’t enforce it. They send the first mailer with the survey, then send a bunch of postcards–that’s money wasted right there. In addition to that they hire people to go get this done on foot–they get like $25/hr. Just reminds me of when colleges ask alumni for donations with similar mailings. I always joke that they should just save the money from the mailings and maybe they won’t need donations -_-
I get that it’s for funding, but ideally, is once every decade even that accurate a portrayal of the community? Especially when there are apartments that people move in and out of constantly? There could be 2 people living in ONE apartment one year and 4 the next but it won’t be reflected. Multiply that by all the apartments in that area…you get the drift.
I filled the thing out and I remember the people coming by 10 years ago to help us fill it out too. I’m just pretty sure that there IS a better way to do this even though I don’t know what it is. All I’m saying is that I don’t blame people for thinking there are ulterior motives when the questions ask for specifics =P
@kalamai - The mailings and foot work and all that, you’ve got to see it like a studio trying to promote a movie. It’s not possible to just “let it happen” without any kind of push to tell people that it is happening, if you actually want participation. Maybe the answer really should be for the government to actually start punishing people who don’t do the census, so that way they don’t have to convince and remind people otherwise because people should already know about it (kinda like Tax season), but we don’t actually want that now do we?
BTW. The government wouldn’t spend the time and money to send people out on foot to get people to do the census, if everybody mailed theirs in. You can point your finger on those not mailing theirs in for the extra expenditures made for that.
Keep in mind that it’s not only for funding. The census also determines how to allocate Congressional seats and electoral votes based on the population. Once every decade may only be accurate to a certain degree, but do you really want them to do this every four years based on the Presidential elections? Or do you want it every two years, based on the term of the House Of Representatives? The fact that things change so much in a span of ten years just goes to show how important it is to participate in this, to get “the most accurate” data as feasibly possible.
The census has been around since the 1800s. It’s only been abused once and that was during unusually extreme times in World War II. History has shown that it was wrong for them to do that, and any attempts to repeat that mistake has been rectified. If that wasn’t the case, don’t you think the government would have abused the data again after Sept 11? No, the government opted for The Patriot Act instead.
If people are this paranoid about giving their personal information out to the census, well then there are a lot of things that they need to also be paranoid about. How about the information given to hospitals? The police? Your place of work? 24 Hours Fitness? Credit Cards? Should we all be super paranoid about those as well? We live in a society that openly gives out their information to social networking sites for crying out loud. Seriously now… =P
I agree that the census should be done to allocate funds appropriately. And it’s ONLY once every 10 years! I agree we have more distrust for the government than we do online vendors that we never see in person. And the information that we give is just our age, address, and race.
@ patrick005, the callers on Kevin and Bean are hilarious! U-S-A U-S-A. LOL.
@patrick005 - haha because the patriot act was so well received?
hospitals have laws like HIPAA that prevent workers from even mentioning that they saw someone they know at their workplace to that person’s family member. nobody likes giving their info to those places, they just do it because they have to or they won’t be helped/hired. people SHOULD be paranoid about all of them. in regards to the social networking sites…not everyone puts up their (real) info, for the longest time people assumed my last name started with a “k” just because i had initials up on one of those sites.
@kalamai - The Patriot Act sucked. That’s my point.
My other point still stands, there’s no need to make a big fuss about the information given to the census, as it’s protected like any similar things. People should be aware about the negative possibilities involving handing out personal information, but in the case of the census, consider it a necessary evil like any other similar things involving the government. I can understand if people are “simply concerned” about it, but I don’t understand the people who are acting like the census is going to cause
the end of the world when it’s clearly not. I’m just calling out the ridiculous over-reaction that I’m seeing.
@Kalamazoo4ever - Yeah, I had a huge laugh at the fact that even Lisa May was able to crush the caller’s attempts at spewing “facts” about the census.