Census 2010

[Thrak]

I always find it interesting when people pick and choose which part of the Constitution they want to follow...

I'm sure most of us here support the 2nd, 4th, 5th, etc amendments. The census is in the Constitution. Give them the basic info they need and be done with it... there isnt anything nefarious in this census compared with previous ones.

[Blueface]

Originally Posted by Thrak

I always find it interesting when people pick and choose which part of the Constitution they want to follow...

I'm sure most of us here support the 2nd, 4th, 5th, etc amendments. The census is in the Constitution. Give them the basic info they need and be done with it... there isnt anything nefarious in this census compared with previous ones.

I hear you and follow you.
That doesn't mean you can't question the law.
Census may be law.
Law may require you to comply or face penalties.
Doesn't mean all of it is appropriate.
Doesn't mean it can't be questioned.

What benefit is there to focus solely on Hispanics in the US? Other groups don't matter?
What benefit is there to question only on Mexicans, Puerto Ricans (which are Americans I might add) and Cubans?
Those are not valid questions for me to pose as an American?

[raisin]

Was it television that made stupidity so popular in America?

[Thrak]

Originally Posted by Blueface

I hear you and follow you.
That doesn't mean you can't question the law.
Census may be law.
Law may require you to comply or face penalties.
Doesn't mean all of it is appropriate.
Doesn't mean it can't be questioned.

What benefit is there to focus solely on Hispanics in the US? Other groups don't matter?
What benefit is there to question only on Mexicans, Puerto Ricans (which are Americans I might add) and Cubans?
Those are not valid questions for me to pose as an American?

Those are valid questions and BY LAW you dont have to answer them. Like I said, just the most basic info is required.

[skibumdc]

Originally Posted by Neuromancer

Don't get over-excited about the census...just fill it out...the information in it is kept by the government...

If we can't trust Credit card companies to keep our Info safe, and they have a $$$ reason to keep it safe, why should you trust the gov't to keep it completely safe?
I contract to the gov't and let me tell you, be afraid.

Originally Posted by Emjaysmash

I almost applied to be a census taker this year. They were full up.

Are you surprised? Probably the same ACORN employees are now going to be employed by the Census. More taxpayer dollars at work.

[T.G]

[elderboy02]

[mithrilG60]

Originally Posted by T.G

Not to point out the obvious here, but if you have a passport the government already knows the answers to most or all of the things you don't want to fill out on the census form, so you might as well just fill them in and not attention to yourself.

Or a drivers license, or a hunting license, or a Social Security Number, or any number of other pieces of ID issued by your local, state or federal branches for varying purposes.

As someone else mentioned, they just want to to do the work of collating the specific information they want for this survey. Honestly you should probably want to do it for them too. They can easily get this information with or without your knowledge, at least in the form of a census you know what they're asking. Besides your tax dollars are paying for this exercise and you can bet that it's cheaper to pay the census takers to mail out the forms and do the resulting data entry than is it to pay bureaucrats to pull this information from multiple sources across several departments and/or levels of government.

Originally Posted by Blueface

My question is how does you name and date of birth and phone number for contact help school funding?

If collated by geographical district they can make predictions about future school use based on population trends. For example if district A has 50% of households where the age is under 40 and district B has 65% of households over 50 you know that district A is likely to need more school services simply because it has a higher percentage of it's population in their child bearing and rearing years. If you take that further and trend that data over several census periods then you can get an idea of migration trends in and out of districts making those kind of predictions more accurate than just looking at single snapshot in time.

[cricky101]

I filled mine out and mailed it yesterday, and lo and behold, the sun still rose this morning.


And between tax returns, passport applications and driver's license info, they already know everything about me.

[skibumdc]

Originally Posted by mithrilG60

Besides your tax dollars are paying for this exercise and you can bet that it's cheaper to pay the census takers to mail out the forms and do the resulting data entry than is it to pay bureaucrats to pull this information from multiple sources across several departments and/or levels of government.

True.

Originally Posted by mithrilG60

If collated by geographical district they can make predictions about future school use based on population trends. For example if district A has 50% of households where the age is under 40 and district B has 65% of households over 50 you know that district A is likely to need more school services simply because it has a higher percentage of it's population in their child bearing and rearing years.

While mostly true, neighborhoods and zip codes can change drastically in the 10 years between censuseseses. sp?
Example: The Northern Virginia landscape has changed so dramatically over the past decade, the census data taken in 2000 has been worthless for school planning since 2002.

We still need the census, but the data is truly only useful in a suburban environment like the DC Metro area for 2 years. Demographics, income levels, age groups can change in as little as a year based on an article in the Post.

[mithrilG60]

Originally Posted by skibumdc

While mostly true, neighborhoods and zip codes can change drastically in the 10 years between censuseseses. sp?
Example: The Northern Virginia landscape has changed so dramatically over the past decade, the census data taken in 2000 has been worthless for school planning since 2002.

We still need the census, but the data is truly only useful in a suburban environment like the DC Metro area for 2 years. Demographics, income levels, age groups can change in as little as a year based on an article in the Post.

That's quite true, but those are the limitations imposed by the census mechanism the US has chosen to implement, so it is what you have to work with. Partially to overcome the data validity due to age issue Canada does a census every 5 years instead of every 10. Our census also asks for much more detail in some areas (level of education, income levels, marital status, employment, etc) and the general statistical information is released publicly almost immediately. I don't know how long the waiting period is to get individual specific data though as I've never really gotten into genealogy or family research.

[Blueface]

Originally Posted by cricky101

I filled mine out and mailed it yesterday, and lo and behold, the sun still rose this morning.


And between tax returns, passport applications and driver's license info, they already know everything about me.

May be true but look at it from my perspective being Cuban and being one of three Hispanic groups signaled out.
I can't help but scratch my head and wonder why my government is so interested in knowing how many of you there are yet is not interested in knowing about any of the many other Hispanics there are in the world residing in the US such as folks from Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Costa Rica, Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Paraguay, Republica Dominicana, Spain, and the others I have left out.

Nope, not interested in any of those. Just Mexicans, Puerto Ricans and Cubans. Doesn't make me lose sleep but certainly makes me question what the intent is. I would have been OK if they asked if you are Hispanic and then asked what country, rather than focus on just three.

UPDATE:
Ooops, forgot to read the next box asking if any other Hispanic origin.
I can sleep now.
There goes my conspiracy theory.
What the heck do I do with my time now?

[replicant_argent]

Because, oddly enough, the government wants to blot out racism, yet still requires that we classify ourselves.
Nothing wrong at all with the first part.
The second part is pure hypocrisy.
One constituent, one vote. Nothing else matters.

[Blueface]

Originally Posted by replicant_argent

Because, oddly enough, the government wants to blot out racism, yet still requires that we classify ourselves.

Hey!!!
Pete,
It is important to keep tabs on those darn Hispanics.
Freaking terrorists I tell you.
We need to know when they will become the majority and what is left is the new minority.

[replicant_argent]

Originally Posted by Blueface

Hey!!!
Pete,
It is important to keep tabs on those darn Hispanics.
Freaking terrorists I tell you.
We need to know when they will become the majority and what is left is the new minority.

Hola, mi amo.

[Blueface]

Originally Posted by replicant_argent

Hola, mi amo.

You better get your Spanish much more refined than that.
When we take over, we are going to make Spanish the official language.
After all, it already is if you leave the country and go to South Florida.

[replicant_argent]

Originally Posted by Blueface

You better get your Spanish much more refined than that.
When we take over, we are going to make Spanish the official language.
After all, it already is if you leave the country and go to South Florida.

damn, now I have to use one of the only other 4 phrases I know.




Dos cerveza, por favor, amigo?

[Blueface]

Originally Posted by raisin

Was it television that made stupidity so popular in America?

Depends on what channel you watched I guess.
If HSN, you bought a whole lot of crap you don't need.
If Sesame Street, you learned how to count.
I can count in four languages. I guess I must have watched a ton of it, in various languages.

[kydsid]

Carlos you aren't the only one bugged by the Census. It is an old American tradition going back to every single census.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-20000859-38.html

[Neuromancer]

Carlos...fill out the freakin' form already...