More Census nonsense

Someone mentioned to us that the questions on the census are a bit personal ie income level.  Those who have received the form, is there anything on the questionnaire like that?

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I believe there also is a long one - more of a sampling - that includes a lot of personal information.  Would be interested in knowing if anyone got the long version which was to be about 10 pages.  We got the short form and it definitely is a head count.

A number of years ago we were in a Santa Monica RV park on census day.  We had already filled out the form at home and sent it in.  They were going around to find out who had a permanent addresss elsewhere and who needed to be counted that day in that RV park.

ArdraF

We are in an RV park in Tucumcari, NM, and yesterday a lady from the Census Bureau came by our motorhome, and wanted to count us for the census.  We told her we were on our way back to Iowa, and we would be counted there.  Her response was, "why not be counted here"?  I told that we wanted to be counted in Iowa so the government money that is tied to the census would go there.

Paul

They really take this Census stuff seriously.  I never even would have thought of government workers roaming around campgrounds trying to count people.  I wonder if they do the same at extended stay hotels or truck stops! 

Yes they do check every place they can think of where transient people may be staying. And yes, they really do take it seriously. My Mom was a field supervisor for one census (quite a few years ago) and she managed  a crew of people who visited and revisited homes, hotels & motels, RV & trailer parks and what not to find and count as many as possible. They had the first 90+% of the people in her area counted in about two weeks. They spent four more weeks finding the rest and that was just one modest size city in NY.

There is a lot of political pressure behind the census bureau because the allocation of House of Representative seats is on the basis of population and location.

carson said:

  Having received the first alert letter that the Census was coming.. then the Census form arrived, and now today I received another post card telling me that a request to fill out the Census form should have been received by now.

  Wonder how much that second (Post Card) mailing cost. Who is in charge?????

carson FL

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Carson,

I saw the Secretary of Commerce, Gary Locke, on the Daily Show the other night.  Jon Stewart asked him about the multiple mailings.  Locke said the alert letter & reminder post card will improve the response rate by a significant percentage but I don't recall what it is.  He explained that after a certain date late in April census takers will be sent to all addresses from which replies haven't been received.  He said the reduced labor costs due to the lower number of census takers required to complete the census will amount to millions of dollars.  That's his story & he's sticking to it.

I lost interest in the Census when the Census people took out large adds in Spanish in the Arizona Republic urging people to fill out the forms and reminding them that no law enforcement would receive the data to enforce immigration status.

Yesterday, we "moved" from an RV park to a space on a friend's 10 acre property in another state.  Wonder if the census will find us.  We'll be here for about a month or more.

Jeannine

You should probably report in, Jeannine.  Or maybe there is a census form in your mail already?

At the last Census we were at the VIP RV Park in SLC.  I was at the library when the lady came to count us.  We were full-timers then so it didn't matter to us where we were counted.  I think Fred would have tracked her down just to be sure we were counted.  She gave him the full version question form too. 

We filled out this latest one in AZ.  Nothing to it.  Names, addresses  and birth dates.  Lots less information required than previous census forms.  We've been through 7 of them, and have yet to have anything come back at us to tell us Big Brother has us in his clutches.  They have already acquired more information on us through the MVD and VA than any census bureau does.  Those that are fearful the govt. will know too much about them are way too insecure.  They already have it by many other means. 

There are other reasons, besides allotting our congressional districts by the Census count.  They are a means of tracking agricultural problems, and disappearing farm lands, city growth, or lack thereof, and lots of other stuff.  Some years back they wanted to know where you were born; where your parents were born; if you had any toilets in the house, and how many; if you owned a tractor or a car, if you owned your own home, how many bedrooms you had, and way back when, how many slaves you owned.  I'm a genealogist, and you can't believe how important the Census is to those trying to find elusive relatives several generations back.  It is a boon for trying to break down brick walls we can run into in trying to find our roots.  However, nothing is released to the public for 70 years, so if you're hiding from relatives today, they can just wait 70 years until your dead, and then find out where you were 70 years ago.....  ;D

So, if for any other reason you haven't filled it out yet, please do so, so future genealogists will be able to find where you once lived......

Daisy

No long form this tiome, just the 10 question. 

Daisy said:

...have yet to have anything come back at us to tell us Big Brother has us in his clutches.  They have already acquired more information on us through the MVD and VA than any census bureau does.  Those that are fearful the govt. will know too much about them are way too insecure.  They already have it by many other means.

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Ain't that the truth.  I've always done pretty well hiding myself from online searches (Zabasearch.com was always the closest but never found me), but my years of attempts at internet privacy were shattered today by http://www.spokeo.com/.  Kinda scary actually.

Not only have we also received the multiple copies of the 'notices' at home about the census, we're also exposed to the many radio and TV 'spots' telling us to do the right thing and fill in our forms...

The latest insult for me is that our all-knowing Fed's last week sprang with a boat-load of bucks to have a huge, full sized Billboard installed right in our front yard at work, where it's impossible to ignore when coming and going each day!!!  I'm actually surprised it's printed in English - I wonder how the english-deprived 'residents' (wink-wink) from other countries are going to fill out their forms?

Ray

I think all the nay sayers are forgetting the purpose of the census. It is required by the Constitution (IIRC) and determines how many representatives your state will have in Congress. Does this mean that non responders are violating the Constitution ? ;D ;D For whatever reason, too many people do not, or refuse to, have themselves counted and thereby lose representation and Federal allocations that then go to other states. For those opposed to any Federal allocations, you don't reduce them, just provide more to other states.

I applied for and was odd\\ffered position f a area supervisor, but we will be gone, so won't take it, Jolene applied and was offered a job as enumerator, same thing.  I too get amused at the folks that take offense to the census.  Plus the ones worried about dates.  Get it in the mail, fill it out, send it in. 

Now the Super Bowl spot was either genius marketing, or a waste of money.  Public awareness is important, the reason why, the directive etc, because we all seem to forget in between. 

All the mailings seem crazy, but the logic behind it is that the more they get back in the mail, the less folks have to be hired to go door to door to count.

MrLucky1950 said:

We are in an RV park in Tucumcari, NM, and yesterday a lady from the Census Bureau came by our motorhome, and wanted to count us for the census.  We told her we were on our way back to Iowa, and we would be counted there.  Her response was, "why not be counted here"?  I told that we wanted to be counted in Iowa so the government money that is tied to the census would go there.

Paul

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They hit me here in SC yesterday.. I told 'em I'm from Michigan and will take care of the forms when I get back there.

This is our first as fulltimers. Are forms being sent to fulltimers at their mailing service?

They hit me here in SC yesterday.. I told 'em I'm from Michigan and will  take care of the forms when I get back there.

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  Just curiosity here,
  Do you still have a domicile in MI? If so and you are going back, ok. (I thought you sold your place). You could still fill out the form at the RV park using your MI address and forget about the MI form.

If you don't have a domicile. i.e no Zip code and address, might as well fill out the form at the RV Park.

  Remember I'm no expert in anything...

carson

Hmmmmm, what if they knock on the MH door and I tell 'em that I already did the form.  I didn't keep any proof...???

I guess the whole thing is on the honor system.  Do your best.

carson said:

I guess the whole thing is on the honor system.  Do your best.

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I hope that is true... as I understand it, it is a legal requirement though.  I met a woman who works for the Census department, full time... this year she's doing the big census job but normally she does follow-ups on this question or that question and according to her, if she asks and you "decline to answer"; she has the recourse to call out the Federal Marshalls to help her.  I guess if that doesn't convince you to answer, then they can ... I don't know what?  And if she thinks you are not telling the truth, then it's Martha Stewart de ja vue.