2010 Census
Mar 16th, 2010 by Frank Knotts
Well I just got my 2010 Census. I have read through it several times . I am sure that many of you have also gotten yours. I have to say that the second question make me wonder who put this together and also to question their ability to walk and chew gum.
Question number one: “How many people were living or staying in this house ,apartment,or mobile home on April 1,2010 ?” Okay let me say right now that in my opinion this is the only question that is relevent to the census.
Question number two: “Were there any (additional) people staying here April 1,2010 that you (did not include) in question 1?” Wow they almost caught me in a lie with that trick question number one.
Question number three deals with whether my home is owned out right or mortgaged or if I live here for free. Someone explain to me why that matters ?
Number four request my phone number, I don’t think so !
Question number five ask you to begin listing each person’s name , number six their sex, number seven asks their age and exact date of birth. None of this is relevant to counting how many “PEOPLE” live in this country.
Now comes my favorite part, before number eight and nine there is a special note:” please answer BOTH question 8 about Hispanic origin and question 9 about race. For this census, Hispanic origins are not races.”
I guess Hispanics are about to receive some kind of special treatment, gee I wonder what that could be,hum ?
And by the way if we are in a post race era as the liberal media told us after Pres. Obama was elected, then why does it matter what race you are ?
Number ten ask if person number one sometime lives somewhere else, like Mexico maybe .
Alright I know we are no longer living in the times of the founding of the nation and that a lot has changed. But the census is intended for no other reason than to determine how many people live in the several states so that they can receive adequate representation. Each person is a person. This means that a woman is equal to a man, a child is equal to an adult. But most importantly anyone of any given race is equal to anyone of any other given race. To ask about race is racist in itself.
The census was not intended to be a survey into how many entitlement programs are needed for any congressional district. It is intended to allow the government to determine whether a state needs to add or remove a congressional district.
Ask me how many “PEOPLE” live in my home and I will tell you. Ask me anymore and you get nothing. My income or mortgage status has no bearing on my state’s need for additional congressional districts. My race has no bearing, my sex has no bearing, nor does my age .
Sure it does. How do we know if we are counting people more than once if we do not have names and ages (eliminates confusion of jr and sr)? The census has pretty much asked that for at least 150 years (I haven’t looked at the first ones). They have always included race in some manner because of the early tax exemption for Indians and the special counting for of other peoples (3/5′s rule). Now we have obligations under the 14th amendment to insure that everyone is being represented regardless of race or national origin. That can not be done without asking the question. That is just my opinion. I await others.
That home stuff and the long form just seems a little nosy. They have a right to ask anything they want. That does not obligate me to answer.
I will say that name and birth year of residents are just fine by me for a census. More than that is not appropriate for a census of the citizens, though it would not be without precedent. If you look at the census records that are available to the public several of them include exact birthdates, information about sex, race, household relationships, and employment.
There are other forms of census that are more invasive but they are for businesses and such.
Why are “Hispanics” lumped apart from everyone else, while Francophiles, Germanics, Slavics etc. aren’t? For that matter, why are “Hispanics” considered as the “Latinos” of Latin America, while those of Italian, Romanian, French or Portuguese descent are not? Other than the letter ‘z’ in their last names, precisely what do Cameron Diaz and David Ortiz have in common? Does e pluribus unum not mean anything to these statist, racial bean-counters? Or do they simply HATE the idea of America?
David, they are relying on me to count the people living in my home on April 1, 2010, I think I can tell the difference between those people , what confusion and what duplication? “Now we have obligations under the 14th amendment to insure that everyone is being represented regardless of race or national origin. That can not be done without asking the question.” David the surest way to amke sure we are all being treated the same is to not differentiate ourselves frome each other based on race. How can you say someone was mistreated based on race if you don’t know what race they are. The only reason to ask the race question is to give preferential treatment to some, based on race, that is racism.
I’ll tell you something else , this entire census is centered around question number eight about hispanics, this census is going to be used in the next big battle and that is for amnisty.
Just for the record, there really is no need to ask the question regarding race for the purpose of apportioning Congressional seats. Even in the days of slavery, race was not an automatic determinant of the three fifths rule. If one was a free man or “a free person of color” as the 19th century census would have deemed one, then that person was counted fully for the purposes of Congressional apportionment. In fact Delaware while a state that legally allowed slavery, had more “free persons of color” then slaves according to the census of 1850. Only in Sussex County did slaves outnumber the “free persons of color”.
Census data is used by government “planners” for projecting budgets for various programs. Some say this is useful, others say it is just another way to spend our money. I have seen instances of both.
Personally, I have found that liberals will make the case for spending our money whether there is reliable census data or not so how one answers census questions is in my view a personal decision.
Frank correctly points out that we are not legally required to answer most of the questions. I will say that the data is used by more than just the Feds. Local governments use the data for planning local projects.
Age is certainly a factor that needs to be considered. Schools for children, roads for drivers of age, services for senior citizens, etc.
I have long been a critic of the “long form”. It is legitimate to survey people and ask questions about housing stock, employment, and an hundred other things . It is illegitimate to push it on them as a requirement. The census is a requirement. The long form was an over reach. It is gone now. Thanks to Bush and company there are no more toilet questions in the census. We are back to a ten question survey which asks important and legitimate information which relates to the census.
One question is just stupid. It basically asks did you forget someone that you should have listed. Then it seeks basic demographics. It is nothing that the government likely doesn’t already know through other sources. Your neighbors know the approximate information just by living by you. I do not see that as any invasion of privacy.
cookie, all of the things you listed would be better handled at the state level and that is why the original intent of the federal census did not cover such items. It is only after decades of bureaucrats and the constant expansion of the government that we have come to accept this invation.
And David I do see this as an invasion , for the fact that it is over reaching that original intent, the same as I have a problem with those who read into the Constitution that the Federal government has the obligation to provide welfare and health care. In my case it is more a point of principles than it is about me thinking I can hide something from big brother.
Frank,
Presumably the Feds share this info with the states. Why do double duty and cost and have a state census also?
cookie, the state already knows whether I have a mortgage or not, all of that is filed at settlement. The state knows how many children are in school and in each district , it’s called enrollment. Employment record are filed through the Delaware Department of Revenue, that is unless the people are working under the table and if they are then it is unlikely that they would declare it with their names on the federal census. In fact the Federal government also already has access to this information , that is another thing that leads me to believe that the real purpose of this census is to start the ball rolling on amnesty.