The Census, how does it work?

[lemontrees]

Census workers WILL try to contact you. Several times, in fact, if your form is not returned, so if you are concerned about wasteful spending, and you trashed yours, then YOU are the cause of waste. ( so your excess cost tothe government - coming out of YOUR pocket- willbe the workers visit, times the number of attempts, AND Gas mileage) In the event, after a couple of trys to contact you, they may get information from one of your neighbors as to head count. That is the main concern.

Oh, and they usually expect the census workers to work 8 hour days, 5 days a week .

There was a question about spending time at another location ( vacation homes, etc.) I would imagine that an incall would rank as one of those.

Dept of Commerce has these guys working year round. Preparing for this count started a couple of YEARS ago, mapping out the areas ( imagine how many new subdivisions were created in the last 10 years), and updating their addresses. Those monthly Labor and unemployment statistics come from the Census Bureau. They affect all sorts of financial dealings ( stock market, etc).

The Census Bureau and the surveys it conducts are actually a very interesting group. I had a great time working for them for 2 years. ( at considerably less than $14/hour- rates vary around the country). Visit interesting ,sometimes scary places. Meet interesting, LOL sometimes SCARY PEOPLE. They also do secondary surveys covering topics like smoking, health care, travel, all sorts of stuff. This form ws not terribly intrusive. You should see what is asked on a yearly survey they do in selected areas. Now THAT one is extensive.

The information is treated confidentially. It may not be given to other agencies like LE or Immigration except in the form of statistics. Nothing about individuals. That is a very common worry, and one that all those people visiting these areas with many aliens ( possibly illegal) are trying to stress.

Since congressional apportionment changes are affected by this, and government financial distributions are paid out, it is important that they get a good count. To that end, there will be a group going to shelters, scouring under bridges, going into migrant worker camps, anywhere people might be.

So at the very least, fill out the first question ( how many people) and send it back in. Cutting off your nose to spite your face makes no sense at all! Send it back in!

[ezman]

lemontrees is correct. Not filling out and mailing in the form causes more waste.

The census headcount is constitutionally mandated, and used to determine representation, as well as prportional allotment of federal funds for schools, transportation, services, etc.

In the past, the census sent "long forms" to some percentage of people. This is where the "intrusiveness" issue came into being. People were very sensitive about giving income data and other personal data. During the past 10 years, a separate branch has been formed to do statistical sampling for these kinds of things on an annual or bi-annual basis.

Thus, the "every 10 years" census is reduced to strictly a headcount. Nowhere on the form does it ask if you are legal or not. And all information is confidential within the census bureau only. By law, it cannot be shared with other government agencies.

There are a lot of things I dislike about what our government is doing, but I keep voting and hope eventually we can get good people in place. I hope that we get a better headcount locally and get increased representation.

[nuglet]

I, for one, have always been suspicious of anyone that spends $10,00,000(++) to get a job that pays $400,000 a year.

[GneissGuy]

You cannot fill it in online.

As to why people refuse to fill it out, the constitution gives the census the right to count the number of people living in a state. It does not give them the right to DEMAND under penalty of law,

Your name,
Date of birth,
Telephone number,
Race,
Information on whether you own or rent,
Relationships between household members (including living in sin)

As to privacy. SURE I trust the members of the government to follow the law regarding privacy of records. Also, don't the records become public after some period of time?

The long forms are STILL around. However, they've decided that instead of doing them every 10 years, they will do them at random at any time. They've also renamed it to "American Community Survey."

The ACS demands under penalty of law that you answer:

All the short form questions
Type of building
When it was built
When you moved in
Acres
How much money you made from agricultural sales
Is there a business on the property
How many rooms
How many bedrooms
Sinks, hot and cold water, refrigerator, stove, telephone service
Number of automobiles
Fuel used for heating
Cost of electricity
Cost of gas
Cost of water and sewer
Did you get food stamps this year
Condo fees
Cost of rent
Value of property
Real estate taxes
House insurance cost
Mortgage payment
Mortgage escrow details
Second mortgage info
Birthplace
Citizenship status
Time in US
College student status
Education level
Degrees
What language you speak at home
Where you lived last year
Type of health insurance
Trouble hearing or seeing
Mental conditions
Mobility problems
Marital status and history
Are you caring for grandchildren? History?
Military service.
Military disability.
Employment status
Address where employed
How you got to work
Did you carpool
What time you leave for work
How long is your drive
Layoff status
Are you looking for work
Have you worked in the last 12 months
Would you take a job if offered
What does your company do?
What type of company?
What are your work duties?
Income
Interest income
Social security income
Retirement income
Welfare
Retirement

Does this sound like legally mandatory interrogations of the citizens based on the the constitutional authority to "enumerate" the population for purposes of determining representation in the US House of Representatives? Does the time I leave for work have a legitimate bearing on how many House seats my state gets?

[OneHotMale]

Originally Posted by dammit

That's nuts....4500 x $14 is $63,000 per hour...lets say they average 2 hours per day working their neighborhood for 1 week, that's $882,000 for one town. assume what, 300 cities with that many workers like S.A. is $264 Million and 2000 cities where there is 300 people working 1 hour per day for a week is another $59 million...so, besides the costs for printing, mailing, receiving, and compiling the paper forms we are paying for another $323 million to count how many people we have in the US? rather than asking the city's to send in their tax roll counts and multiply by 2.5?

LMAO yep you got the math right and it is my understanding that Austin is paying their census people $16.00 per hour. Guess it is just a cost of living difference between Austin and SA. Also factor in that they are also going to reimburse you for mileage at I am assuming the standard mileage rate.

And Lemontrees I think that they expect you to work a minimum of 20 hours per week. From what I have heard most people who are doing this already have fulltime jobs and are looking to supplement their income by working a few hours each evening and then possibly a full 8 hours each weekend day. I have a friend in another state who has a fulltime job and is doing this census work and this is how he is working his schedule.

[Dagny D.E.W.]

Originally Posted by ezman

The census headcount is constitutionally mandated, and used to determine representation, as well as prportional allotment of federal funds for schools, transportation, services, etc.

Yes and that is why I will tell them how many are at my residence.

I tell my name so that in 50 years the decendents can look me up and find their geneology.

Originally Posted by ezman

Thus, the "every 10 years" census is reduced to strictly a headcount. Nowhere on the form does it ask if you are legal or not.

and THAT is what I have a problem with. my representation in Congress SHOULD be based on people here LEGALLY. Then maybe the Congress would be more motivated to have the country obey the laws of the land.

I don't fill out the in between years because it is not constitutional. (and very invasive.)

[lemontrees]

I have not done this since early 1990's, so things may have really changed.

BUT we were to work ( during the Census and subsequent "mop up" segments) 40 hours andThe time sheets had to be filled in 8-12, then 1-5, with an hour missing for lunch. NO Matter what hours you actually worked. And M-F even though much work was done on weekends where you could actually find people. And you were limited to 50 contacts per day ( easy to do in a neighborhood when youwere doing simple contact work) , so if you were able to do more than that, you just changed dates. Their practices and logic were totally "Government".

This ACS survey that you mention sounds just like the intensive survey done once a year ( in April, I think). Those sound like the questions it asked. BUT it did NOT require giving SSAN, or bank acct numbers. ( It was sickening how many of the elderly you ran into doing these that OFFERED you this information. That was a big part of what I did was to STRESS to them that NO Census person would EVER ask them those questions and that they should NEVER give out that info to anyone calling on them. Their trust was so frightening. I frequently asked them to have one of the adult children sit in on the interview, for their own ( and their families) peace of mind. If anyone here has elderly parents that are in this survey group, PLEASE do emphasize this to them)

A point to note, often, when perspective employers learn you worked for the Census as an interviewer, it gives you a leg up. They figure if you can walk into a strange house and ask for / and GET information, that you can sell ice to Eskimos.

As to the Penalty of Law. BAck then we were told to use "Penalty of Law" as a not so subtle coersion with uncooperative people. BUT that the truth of the matter is, there is a Law granting the government the right to seek the information, but no actual penalty for not cooperating and giving the info. ( Don't tell anyone that!) This may have changed, but that was the way it was. I thought that pretty undehanded, and in a face to face interview, usually let the folks know if they were uncomfortable with the questions, to just say no. Which is exactly what I would have done if they interviewed ME. ( Remember the Golden Rule...do unto others...)

AND you don't EVEN want to know what went on at the central collecting points, where forms were turned in. Forms scattered all over creation , scooped up from floor and trashed. And then the folks got notices that their form had not been turned in and had to be redone , when I knew ( because I had PERSONALLY delivered it) that the forms HAD been completed and arrived at the designated destination. And no one really cared.

[GneissGuy]

The census web site claims up to a $5000 fine. It's unclear that anyone has ever been fined.

[rCoder]

One problem is that the census department has disclosed information in the past (two biggies are for the draft in WWI and Japanese-American internment in WWII). But even if they do not "disclose" any information, there is nothing to prevent them from "verifying" information or "correcting" other databases.

There is another philosophical issue. I am against discrimination, period. To have discrimination, you must be able to put individuals into arbitrary groups. The biggest discriminator is the federal government. The census is being used as a tool to further discrimination.

[dammit]

Interesting, I understand that the constitution mandates that a Census be made...I don't find anything that requires me by law to respond to the Census.

*phoieeee* Like government waste is going to go away, even if there was 100% compliance with the Census, somehow I imagine the final cost would be the same as if there was 0% compliance

[SoSideGuy]

The constitution requires congress to conduct a census. Even in 1790 a census was understood to mean the collection of additional information for the conduct of good government policy. The earliest census collected information on ages, sex, and race, for example.

Statistical inferences are a necessary part of any census and have always been part of the process. The assumptions have been more formalized since the 1940's when statistical sampling became more of a science than just guesses.

I find the paranoia surrounding the census quite amusing. It is truly the least of anyone's worries regarding information gathering or erosion of liberties.