I don't have a problem with the government knowing my name, age, birthday, if I'm male or female, if I'm white, black, or hispanic, or if I own my home. I don't get upset about supposed violations of "privacy". The fact that my name is Amy, I'm 28, female, white, and I own a home is not private information. You can get all that by, you know, talking to me. My big problem with the census is the spectacular amount of taxpayer money they are using to advertise it. TV, radio, newspaper and internet ads. I was especially upset about the ad during the superbowl. What a waste of money!
We filled ours out yesterday and it goes out today. Personally I think it is a waste of tax money. The government already has this information. By having us fill out the census, it saves them the time of having to look up all of our information.
Amy, I agree it is a terrible waste of our tax dollars to do all this advertisement! That bothers me as well considering that our country is already deeply in debt. There are much better places to put our tax money.
I just filled mine out today! There was nothing on there that I felt was intrusive at all or that I would have a problem filling out. In fact, it's stupid because it's nothing they don't already know or could not find out on their own. I mean you know they are double checking it anyway. Oh well. No questions about mortgage payments or anything like that. Just basic info on residents.
YEP! Think of all the money they spent on forms that say, basically, "This is NOT your census form, but it IS coming, and please fill it out when it comes!"
I was doodling and accidently doodled all over the envelop I have to send and not the one it came in...LOL. Let's just hope they think my 4 year old did it! LOL. Oh wait...she draws better than me..lol
Do you think we'll get a letter stating that "This is NOT your census form because the real thing came last week"?
Here's a copy of it: http://www.census.gov/acs/www/Downloads/ACS-1(info)(2010) Stateside English_web.pdf
It is mandatory to fill out how many people are in your household, but that's it. We got a letter/census I can't remember which, but it said, "UNDER PENALTY OF LAW" on the outside. We're going to only fill out question number one and be done with it. They dont' need to know anything else about me and my family.
Nothing asked on the census isn't anything they don't already know anyway. It was just asking for race and birthdays. Mine said "Under Penalty of Law" also...that almost made me want to throw it away..LOL. But after looking inside and realizing that the gvt. already know this junk...who cares. I did fill it out entirely. Mostly because I started and once I started I kept going. lol. I don't blame you though...but again it's all info they have anyway.
The other side of the coin is that if the government already knows it, it should not have to ask for anything beyond how many because this information puts you at risk for identify theft. I know someone who had the identity of two of her three children stolen, which were born the same state so it is not just about adults here. We have had post offices thefts in our area also...so to me this information is not a little matter. If any question should be on the Census that is not (an has no more constitutional basis than the other ones), it would be regarding citizenship. I would consider that far more pertinent than the other questions.
Good point. I had not considered identity theft. I am not for any type of gvt. intrusion...I just didn't care about this all that much. However, you do bring up something to think about. Mail does get messed up. Although, the census didn't ask for social security numbers or anything like that. I mean so many people know my kids names and birthdates..so what's the difference if I write it on a census form. Speaking of mail....I am always getting my neighbor's mail. Once I got his paycheck. Makes me wonder who is getting my mail!
It is amazing how much personal information about us is floating around. The police know that a Handsome, Patty, and Ems live at my address just by looking it up on their screen. We receive mail with Ems name on it, usually subscription forms. My MIL was living with us for a few months, over the holidays, and now we receive a lot of mail for her regarding SS and she never changed her address. When I file my yearly affidavit with the state, they know my address, district we live in, number of children, grade, and age. Shoot, I even heard of a custody case where a judge had the parents debit/credit card traced so he can see the purchases the parents were making. Basically so he could see if they were properly feeding the child.:shock: While I do not care for this census in any way. It seems like small potatoes compared to the invasion of privacy we already live with.
Exactly Patty. My neighbor knows the info on my census form. I could have filled it out for some families I know. I am not worried about this being a threat to my privacy. While it may give someone an idea to change their identity....it doesn't do that anymore than the lady at the bank with my info, my insurance agent, the receptionist in the doc's office and many more. In fact, any of those people have more access to my personal info than anyone reading my census report.
We filled out the # of people in our house. For the questions about each individual, we marked races and sex. We left off the names and birthdays. That's not anonymous.
Yes, but it's not them I'm worried about. I don't need 'protection' from Disney, I may need protection from my own gov though, sadly. Here are a couple sites. The first one has census info from way back, the other is a copy of the questionaire for the 2000 census. http://usa.ipums.org/usa/voliii/measuring_america.pdf http://www.census.gov/dmd/www/pdf/d02p.pdf
Wow, I'm surprised at this thread. Are we just against anything the govt wants to do, ever? It's not any information they don't already have. If you have a social security number, they have all the information already. Really, folks. Have you ever moved out of your region? I have, several times, and have found the demographic information recorded to be extremely helpful in making decisions as to where to move. If a county's population is 97% hispanic, chances are that the region is mostly Spanish-speaking and we would have a hard time getting along in such an area. Combine that with the govt calculations of - *gasp* - how many people own their homes vs rent them, how much those houses cost, the mean household income, and how many are families with children or just single people, and that makes a HUGE difference when you are moving to a place. How helpful that information is when you can't go and scour all of the neighborhoods to find out which would be the best fit for you to look at moving to! I just filled out mine and mailed it today. It asked, check-box style, if we own or rent our home, and the names, ages, birthdays, and races of everyone in our house. Again, none of the individual information is anything they don't already have; it's just being used as far as local demographics go and needs to be updated periodically as people move around. In fact, we're moving next month. :shrug: So what's the big deal?
I don't think it's a big deal. I filled out my completely and sent it today. I do have a distrust for the government..lol...but this is not something I care about. I didn't think the questions were intrusive or uncalled for in the least. This info is VERY helpful for those moving...oh and let's not forget baby names....have you ever checked the census for popular names...what fun! I also see NOTHING wrong with asking if you own or rent. Geesh, we answer that question on so many aps all the time. Honestly, I think my pizza delivery guy could have filled out 1/3 of my census..lol. When I first read this thread I was anticipating the craziest questions on the census. I actually has never filled one out before...never had one sent before..wait...as I type this..I am remembering doing this once before. lol. See how mundane..and I'm the first one to storm the white house. lol. Dalynn you bring up excellent points on how this information is properly applied and now it can be beneficial. Thank you!
:love: thats my thoughts too. (except I don't think that border states (towns like ours) has even a clue to how many hispanics truely live here legaly VS: illegally:|
