Census deadline: Mail it or get a visit

One day after Tax Day comes the drop-dead date for mailing in Census forms. Fail to mail it today and a census worker will come knocking on the door.

We don’t like strangers knocking on our door, particularly those who work for the Federal Government, so we will dig the form out of the stack of mail that sits unopened on a table in the den and fill the damn thing out.

The slick ads paid for with our tax money says it takes 10 minutes to answer the 10 questions.

We’ll see.

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5 thoughts on “Census deadline: Mail it or get a visit”

  1. The Census is a great view of excess cost and inefficiency. Several months ago a census worker stopped by, apparently to confirm an occupied residence existed at this address.

    I got a notice in the mail to inform me that a Census form would arrive in the next week or so. I did get the form, 8 days after the notice, and filled it out immediately. If it takes anyone 10 minutes, they have a very large family in residence.

    I received another post card to remind me to fill out my Census, that was at least a week or more after I had already mailed the completed form.

    The form itself made me wonder exactly what useful information was gained that wasn’t already in a vast database available to the public. The emphasis seemed to mainly be about race.

    I also heard that some forms had address errors or more than one was sent to the same location. I only got one form and can’t say I noticed anything about the address. No reason to check that since it showed up in my mailbox.

    I gather you found it and completed it. Any comments?

  3. The primary questions asked on census forms are meant to give current data on citizens and their locations for the decennial count as mandated by the Constitution. Yes, it may already exist in databases, but without the census, it can’t be certain if those individual still live within those districts, those communities, and those states, all vital for accurate districting for representation and apportionment of tax dollars for local aid. The vital word in the paragraph is current. Without it we would have no firm idea of the population at this given point and place in time. Retail firms have computerized inventories and sales control which should be able to give an accurate total of value at any point in time. However, because of shrinkage (theft and loss), and simple accumulating errors, an annual inventory is taken to create a new benchmark, or point in time, that is the new accepted value of that inventory. Our census does that for the country.

    BTW, I got mine, up in MA, weeks ago, and sent it in 2 days later. Mine is just a 2 person household so it only took me 5 minutes to fill out.

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