So the Census mailed a form to let me know they are mailing next week???

[NightWatcher]

You know, people might start to have a higher opinion of the government if they would stop doing stupid shit like this.

How many trees?
How much time, effort and waste?


So, I then go to the website to see what "ten simple questions" they will be asking starting next week and I dont know if I want to fill it out.

1. How many people were living or staying in this house, apartment, or mobile home on April 1, 2010?
ok, simple enough question.

2. Were there any additional people staying here April 1, 2010 that you did not include in Question 1?
hello, is this thing on?

3. Is this house, apartment, or mobile home: owned with mortgage, owned without mortgage, rented, occupied without rent?
did they ask if I'm squatting?

4. What is your telephone number? (We ask for a phone number in case we need to contact a respondent when a form is returned with incomplete or missing information)
um, gee no thanks

5. Please provide information for each person living here. Start with a person here who owns or rents this house, apartment, or mobile home. If the owner or renter lives somewhere else, start with any adult living here. This will be Person 1. What is Person 1's name?
#1, are you talking to me?

6. What is Person 1's sex?
Yes, please. (oh man I love that one)

7. What is Person 1's age and Date of Birth?
Age AND Date of Birth, we dont do math here at the Census

8. Is Person 1 of Hispanic, Latino or Spanish origin?
Are there brown people there?

9. What is Person 1's race?
Are you sure there are not brown people there?

10. Does Person 1 sometimes live or stay somewhere else?
Do you squat part time somewhere else, maybe in Winter?

http://2010.census.gov/2010census/text/text-form.php

[yodoobo]

1. we should send them a letter stating

"I'm going to mail my response next week"

[Chipper Chat]

5. Yes.

And mark it "postage due"

[blogslut]

18. I'm pretty sure they send the advance letter for every census

I remember getting one in 2000.

I will perfectly happy to fill out the form. The census is damned important.

[yodoobo]

24. yes, but the throw away letter isn't

[roguevalley]

25. I've been doing census reports for years. I will do them until I

cash in my chips.

[yodoobo]

26. Oh I'm not implying that you shouldnt send it back.

I'm just annoyed at the blatant waste of sending a letter that I'll just toss in the trash.

At first I was happy to see the census letter. My initial thought was cool its here!

But then my reaction turned to disgust when I realized it was just a letter saying to expect it.

So wasteful.

[roguevalley]

33. I agree on the waste.

[FormerDittoHead]

2. Same reaction too. And I was "interviewed" this year too...

IF they were going to do a 2nd mailing, it should have been a follow up to only those who didn't respond to the first one.

[bigwillq]

3. I think we got that same letter today too.

Didn't open it though. Was on my way to work.

[tularetom]

4. I had the same thought when I got that dumbass letter so I did the math

Say there are 100 million homes in the US who got the letter.

And assume that each letter cost them a nickel to prepare stuff into an envelope and mail out. Pretty conservative estimate IMO.

That's 5 million bucks, pretty much chump change in this era of trillion dollar national debt and billion dollar insurance company profits, but still 5 million bucks that could pay health care premiums for the population of a small American town.

[undeterred]

6. Yeah I got all excited for nothing.

I heard on the news that it will cost a ton of money to send a person out if I don't respond to the census. Didn't the extra mailing cost a ton of money?

[DevonRex]

7. If you don't know when you should get it, how would you know if

it got delivered to the wrong box? Would you wonder in June why you hadn't gotten your Census form? Or in July? How about August?

[leftofcool]

8. I got one too.

[JFN1]

9. Blame Republicans.

They have been sending out fake census letters for YEARS, trying to trick people into believing their solicitation for money was an official census letter. So the Census Bureau has to send these "warning letters" out to try to ensure people don't just throw the real census packet away when it arrives, mistakenly believing it to be another Republican mass mailer...

[RKP5637]

11. Never knew that... what sleaze the republicans are. Here's a web site on it...

http://www.prwatch.org/node/8859

[RKP5637]

10. I got the "prepare to prepare" letter too, I though it was dumb. My immediate reaction was WTF. n/t

[drm604]

12. I got that redundant letter also.

I also thought it was silly and wasteful.

But the questions you listed - I really don't find them all that objectionable. I'm not sure why you have a problem with them.

[TroglodyteScholar]

13. Yea...not sure why a letter is necessary at all.

Just send me the damn form already.

[UTUSN]

14. I was actually EXCITED to get the envelop b/c have NEVER been censused before!1

Then it was that advance notice!1 What a let down!1

[SoCalNative]

15. Occupied without rent doesn't mean you're squatting

I live in a house that is owned by a family member that is paid for free and clear.

I do not pay them monthly rent, but pay the property taxes on their house as well as the one I live in.

[NightWatcher]

16. humor is lost on this group

[AllyCat]

17. I got that too and thought the same things as you.

[4lbs]

19. There's a point behind it.

It's actually 10 cents per letter in bulk rate first class. So, $10 million to send to 100 million homes. Unless the postage has changed.

However, the Census budget is $10 billion. Or 0.1% (one-tenth of one percent) spent to send these initial letters out. Big deal.

Plus, it has a greater purpose. Any letters that come back, the Census Bureau knows that the address is no longer valid and it would be pointless to send the bigger, thicker, official Census form next week. You know, the one that is more costly to send, especially with return postage pre-paid for you.

[steelyboo]

23. As a Census Bureau Employee

I thank you for using some common sense. Lets clear up some of the other things for the OP.

Question 2 is asked because you might have someone visiting that doesn't permanently live at the residence, but needs to be included in the population count because they might not get their form at their permanent residence because they are staying with you. Think a college student, relative over for a long visit,etc. Most people read question 1 and think permanent residents. Also see Question 10, makes more sense then.

Question 3 is used to determine homeowners vs. others, think FHA loans, how do you budget for home loans if you don't know how many might be needed?

Question 4: don't worry, we have research people that will find it if you don't give it. The IRS learned how to bug the living shit out of people to get what they want from us. :)

Question 5 can be refused, along with most of the other questions, they will simply refer to you as "Male #1" or whatevers appropriate.

Questions 6 & 7 are standard as question 1, all the way back to 1790. Note on 7, I know you might find this hard to believe, but we have a lot of people in this country that lie about their age so much, that they even forget their actual age.

Question 8 & 9. The reason we ask if you are Hispanic, and then again your race is because they are 2 different things (amazing, huh?) Hispanic is an origin. There is no race called "Hispanic", no particular region of the world either (like Asia). You can be both Hispanic and White(Mexico, Spain), Hispanic and Black (Dominican Republic) or Hispanic and Asian (Phillipines).

I understand you are joking, but we have enough idiots like Ron Paul to deal with, he doesn't need your help making my job harder. Put up a thread about Lindsey "I'm sueing over a Milkaholic Baby ad" Lohan.

[bridgit]

32. Thank you for your post - if people understood how important it is to get data...

from the field to where policy makers need it to, hopefully, shape legislation for the better; they might participate more. As it is, I hear allot of people saying their opinions are never sought or considered so why bother. And I suppose there are reasons for that too, maybe especially when people refuse to answer the phone

[voc]

35. Which makes it superfluous and unnecessary..

Question 4: don't worry, we have research people that will find it if you don't give it. The IRS learned how to bug the living shit out of people to get what they want from us.

[Johonny]

20. Bush mailed out letters telling everyone they were getting a check

then gave them a check. Result everyone was happy to get a tax cut. Doesn't even seem to matter many paid it back at tax time. Obama just cut their taxes. Result was everyone thinks Obama raised or didn't cut their taxes. Seems to me you should do a little promotion with something like the census because it clearly helps keep Government programs on peoples mind. Advertising does have benefits.

[Bluenorthwest]

21. They strike again

The Department of Redundancy Department.

[Raine]

22. Waste of trees for the paper and more crap

to go into landfills. x(

[Common Sense Party]

27. My thought was, "If they do the census by mail, why are they hiring

all these people to go door-to-door?"

[csziggy]

29. They send people out to find those who don't return the census forms

And I think they call or send out census workers to verify the information or in some cases get more information.

One census, we got a call asking for clarification of our answers. I think it was when they were asking about national origin or ethnic identity or some such. As a couple that is as standard, northern European descent as can be imagined, we had a little fun with it, listing our English, Welsh, German, French and Irish heritage. For some reason, this confused the census workers, especially when they called to find out how recently we or our parents had immigrated - and we told them it had been well over a hundred years.

[bridgit]

28. Maybe Person 1 is away at college living in a dorm...

[Sebastian Doyle]

30. Got one of those today too.

What a waste. For that matter, why don't they just do the whole thing online, and have paper forms on hand at the post office or someplace for the techno-phobes. Or maybe the IRS office, since tax time is coming up, a lot of people might be stopping by there in the next few weeks.

[LooseWilly]

31. Got the letter, facepalmed, called it another day...

I suppose the USPS needs the business...

[lonestarnot]

34. Ah, something else we have to pay for but we're not invited to the party where they asked for input.

Responsible government. No wonder it's constantly criticized. Must have been a pug in that pile.

[HopeHoops]

36. I got one of those too. WTF?