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Census mailing - Waste of money from the federal government

By Republican Michigander, Section News
Posted on Tue Mar 09, 2010 at 09:37:38 PM EST
Tags: census, government waste (all tags)

I'm sure you all have seen the ads from Census 2010. It's well known that every 10 years, we have the census. Soon the forms will be coming to be filled out. I thought it came in today. Nope.

Instead, I got a $0.44 first class mail telling me the census form will be in approximately one week from today. Thanks a lot. This is a major waste of my tax money. Anybody that is familiar with the costs of political campaigns knows how much mailings cost. This one is no different except that it is at our expense. There are about 110,000,000 households in the US. This .44 mailing adds up. About $48 million in postage alone. That doesn't include about 110,000,000 envelopes, sheets of paper, laser printer depreciation, toners, and labor for that gigantic mailing.

I'll give it one credit. It was quick. It was addressed from Phoenix yesterday, and I got it today.

Other than that, this was a gigantic waste. They should have saved the $50 million plus and just sent the actual census form instead of the one week warning.

This is just one more example why people don't trust Washington DC with their money. $50 million here, $50 million there. Pretty soon, it's up to 13 trillion.

< Virg Bernero: "Hey, let's make a bank!" | A Michigan Blogger's Report >

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Census mailing - Waste of money from the federal government | 5 comments (5 topical, 0 hidden)

Waste (none / 0) (#2)
by Rougman on Wed Mar 10, 2010 at 08:48:00 AM EST

This is an excellent example of how totally brain dead our bureaucracy has become. Wasn't there one person within government who could look at this and say that it was a waste of millions of dollars?

Not one?

Geez, we're being governed by idiots.

Interesting counterpoint - by reason even (none / 0) (#4)
by jgillmanjr on Wed Mar 10, 2010 at 10:40:57 AM EST

Reason's Hit and Run blog had something on this as well: http://reason.com/blog/2010/03/09/reason-mailbag-the-census-will

I'm still not a fan of the $$$ they've thrown at advertising though.

Just mail the damn form every ten years with a big notice saying "Count how many people live here or go to jail".

I was at a Central Michigan basketball game couple weekends back, and it was ridiculous to see the quantities of bags with crap in it that the census was having handed out.

9:48 A.M. No answer at Levins office so I (none / 0) (#5)
by BruceB on Wed Mar 10, 2010 at 03:27:47 PM EST

called Stabenow. Told the kind lady who answered that the person who authorized that mailing should be fired, immediately if not sooner. Reason: irresponsible spending of the peoples money! She said she would pass my message on. I can just see the person quaking in their boots, can't you? Probably will receive some kind of commendation instead for new and illogical spending of other peoples money!

The U.S. Census 2010 (none / 0) (#6)
by The Blue Diamond on Thu Mar 18, 2010 at 08:22:30 AM EST

Can you spell "S-C-A-M"?

My suggestion... (none / 0) (#7)
by KG One on Thu Mar 18, 2010 at 09:21:10 AM EST

I've received a lot of messages from people asking me about the Census (and I don't even work for them).

Specifically, are all of the questions they ask legal.

What happens if they don't answer a census question?

What happens if a census taker comes to my door?

These aren't from people without anything to hide.

These are from people who are afraid of the "ominous" answers required by law logo stamped on the front of the envelope.

My answers to them (in order).

1.) Sort of, it is specifically enumerated under Art. 1, Sec 2 to perform AN ENUMERATION EVERY TEN YEARS. They do not need to know my name, age, D.O.B.,GPS coordinates of where I live, whether or not I own my home, rent or whatnot. They do not need to know my "ethnicity" (I checked off "other", and filled in AMERICAN...isn't is sad that wasn't an option).

Question #1 needs to be answered (How many people live at my address).

I filled in "None of your business" for everything else except "ethnicity".

So, in the end, I answered all of the questions.

2.) See above.

3.) Pursuant to the Fourth & Fifth Amendments, you are not required to do anything. You can choose to ignore them, or (and I was polite during the last census) tell them that I had already filled out their intrusive questionnaire and would not be answering any additional questions.

Census mailing - Waste of money from the federal government | 5 comments (5 topical, 0 hidden)

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Census mailing - Waste of money from the federal government

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