E-mail of the day: Confessions of a Census worker
If even half of what this anonymous reader who e-mailed about his experience as a Census worker is true, imagine the squandering of tax dollars taking place on a mass scale. Crikey.
Hi, Michelle:
I would first like to apologize for stealing your tax dollars, but if it wasn’t me, it would be someone else. I am an underemployed 20-something Tea Partier, and after reading about how much government waste was going to the 2010 census, I figured that I might as well “git me some of dat Obama money” until I find something more solid.
…I’m currently in my second tour of “temporary employment” with the Bureau….I’m not participating in or approving of what the census data I collect could likely be used for, but all I am is data entry at the moment.
Last summer I participated in the ‘address canvassing’ (AC) project. What this entailed was walking around a neighborhood, literally door to door, with a little hand held computer. My job was not to enter addresses so that these people could receive their form, but to make sure that the addresses that the first wave of people put into the system and appeared on the computer was actually there. 99% were. Sure there were a few missing that you did have to manually enter, but out of the thousands of address that I checked, we’re talking 20 or less that had to be manually entered. I didn’t have to knock on any doors or ask any questions, unless someone came out and was angry that I was walking around the neighborhood looking at pretty address numbers on door frames. If they were mad, I gave them a little sheet that explained the confidentiality of the census. But mostly, it was me getting paid $15.25/hour plus mileage to take my dog for a walk and pushing a few buttons.
In an average suburban neighborhood where the houses are somewhat close to each other, it was no problem to do about 35-40 addresses per hour once you learned how to quickly enter data into the computer. The census said that I should be doing about 12-15 per hour. My direct bosses told me that I should NOT be doing 35-40 because it was making them and other people look bad. So instead of walking at a snails pace, I just did my 35-40/hour and doubled my time when I submitted my hours. Again, sorry for the tax dollar grab, but I was told not to be so darned efficient or else I’d be cut!
To recap: A first wave of people spent god knows how many hours finding the addresses on every street in America. I’m in the second wave, making sure they did their jobs. Then there were people (Quality Control), who were the third wave, making sure I did my job! I was not fortunate enough to get a QC position.
Let me get into another area. Training. To do the above job, I could have been trained in a single morning learning computer functions and mapping, maybe a little bit of recap after a lunch break. No way it should have gone longer than 5 or 6 hours, being generous. Turn on the computer, find your area that you were assigned, learn how to enter the different kinds of dwellings, and how to use a stylus. But no. We were subjected to a 5 day, 40 hour training period that made me want to tear my hair out. Because what I, a college educated non-moron, could have learned in 5 hours, 80% of my class of trainees were aggravatingly slow and confused by the process. Old people, high school dropouts, flat-out idiots. The census takes all comers. Oh and the stupid questions they ask! Thinking back gives me nightmares. I’m really not turning my nose up at these people, but it just saddened me to see good people struggling with such a menial task.
So much time was wasted on the first day, for the rest of the days, I just sat in the back reading the paper, books, staring at the ceiling. At the end of the training, you are given a written test. You have one hour to complete the exam and only need to get 60%. I flew through it in 15 minutes, missed one question, and was a full-fledged graduate of Census university. For $15.25/hour, plus my mileage at 50 cents per mile to a facility which was round trip about 80 miles. So training alone wasted about 35 hours and 320 miles. That’s about $700 right there. Thanks, taxpayers!
Now to my second wave, which is something called Group Quarters Enumeration. This is something I could have learned to do over breakfast. We got a 3 day training. This one is going to places considered group quarters, i.e. nursing homes, soup kitchens, churches where priests live, and the like. Not apartment buildings or anything like that. And of course homeless, people, let’s not forget that.
This one is about to start. My first assignment is a [redacted] in which I have just learned there are no inhabitants who live there full-time or the majority of the time. After talking this over with my boss and feeling cheated that I’m losing hours since there’s nobody to distribute census forms to, I have been told to drive to this [place] (25 minutes from my house), confirm in person, and drive back. Credit me with half an hour there, half an hour back, and half an hour confirming, and I’m getting an 1.5 hours plus the mileage. What a wonderful use of funds!
See what others have said
Note from Michelle: This section is for comments from michellemalkin.com's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that I agree with or endorse any particular comment just because I let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with my terms of use may lose his or her posting privilege.
Comments
You must be logged in to post a comment.
 |
Your Census dollars at work: $100,000 Vegas junket to Treasure Island, baby
September 21, 2010 10:43 AM by Michelle Malkin
45 Comments
Unemployment at 9.5%; another Obama econ adviser bails; Mrs. Obama hits the beach
August 6, 2010 08:54 AM by Michelle Malkin
77 Comments
9.9%
May 7, 2010 10:49 AM by Michelle Malkin
201 CommentsYour Census boondoggle story of the week
May 5, 2010 05:14 PM by Michelle Malkin
46 CommentsLeft-wing lawyers: Minority criminals have a right to Census boondoggle jobs, too!
April 13, 2010 01:47 PM by Michelle Malkin
30 Comments
More anti-anti-Census nonsense: Bill Press calls for Erick Erickson’s arrest
April 8, 2010 11:20 AM by Michelle Malkin
53 CommentsToday’s unemployment figures — and more Census workers’ true confessions
April 2, 2010 10:07 AM by Michelle Malkin
60 Comments
Categories: census
Villainous Company
» Must Read Post of the Day. Possibly, the YearSister Toldjah
» Barack Obama: Can we call him a Socialist now?
So… “No Child Left Behind” IS working!
And all to essentially get one question answered – how many people live here?
Scares me to guess what else they do with the superfluous information.
Michael Swartz
http://www.monoblogue.us
It seems that all aspects of the census is squandering our hard earned money. I’ve received 3 census notifications so far.
1. One to inform me that they were sending me the census.
2. The census itself.
3. A reminder that they have not received my census. Funny…the census has me indicating the number of people living in my home on April 1st, but the reminder came on March 29th.
What a total abuse of tax payer money!
Remember, this is the same Federal Government that botched a flu vaccine launch and now wants to run the entire healthcare system. It’s all about the power baby.
http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/03/listen_to_the_panther.html
Let’s hope the lawsuits and/or repeal efforts work. These marxists are literally killing me.
If we want to confirm every address in America, couldn’t we just ask the Post Office workers who tromp America’s streets on a daily basis anyway?
Incredible.
A friend who was a postal carrier had exactly the same experience. He was chewed out for finishing his route too fast.
This just make my mouth water in anticipation of how they are going to run health care insurance!
Methinks you were immersed in a roomful of Democrats. The same kind of people that can’t figure out ballots, or vote for a guy simply because he is black.
Perhaps I have been naive, but did you know that public libraries have census information set up for the homeless? I saw it today, and know it was addressed to the homeless as this library is one of their stops after the free soup kitchen (down the block) and on the way to their free healthcare at the ED a few more blocks away.
Call me a heartless conservative, but I worked for 5 years in that ED and I know their routines. I also know that many of these men would refuse shelter (when they came in on inclement weather) due to the shelter either “making them work” or “making them hear about God” or not letting them drink or smoke (cigarettes, I assume, as well as crack). I learned pretty quickly that they know the system and will make good use of Obamacare.
So, will the library address be their home away from home?
My brother-in-law is a retired VP from Frito Lay in Orlando. He decided he would help with the Census, even volunteer if necessary. He just wanted to help. He passed the entrance exam with a high grade. The Census bureau never called him back. He will be delighted to hear that they will take all comers…especially the flat out idiots…LOL…I can’t wait to let him know.
txvet2:
They stole that from a Seinfield episode where Jerry delivers the mail on a Sunday and too quickly! Unreal.
That is probably one of the greatest differences between the private and public sector. The private sector in general rewards efficiency, because it either leads to greater profit for the enterprise or the ability to lower costs for the services they provide. In the public sector (unfortunately, in many large corporations, also), that incentive is lacking.
I got mailings from the census. A postcard, a letter telling me the form was on the way, and the form itself.
I can’t wait to get the next 30 letters telling me the letter they sent to tell me they had sent a letter about the letter regarding the letter about the date to expect the letter informing me when I might receive my next notification letter…
There is no end to stupidity. And this fellow’s experience is not only stupid but is frankly criminal. Filing falsified time and expense sheets to the federal government is a criminal offense! Instructing a federal employee to falsify time and expense reports is a criminal offense!
Is the FBI going to raid the Census Bureau and bust them all or are they too busy in Indiana…
Senseless hiring practices appear to be not quite as much on the up and up as they claim: i took the test back in January, scoring 28 out of 28, and was also given 5 veteran points.
to date i have not been contacted, and in a call today, i confirmed that the office i am signed in with has already been hiring for a few weeks.
now, its believable that there are some folks out there in my area with more points than my 33, courtesy of a 10 point veterans preference and a high test score, but there won’t be *that* many of them, so i’m beginning to think that the token “white middle aged male” position is already filled, and the available positions are being flogged out to the usual suspects.
Son?
Oh, wait. You said “underemployed” not “unemployed”.
(sigh)
My first post-undergraduate job was working for the county, working in the elections department. It was a temporary, nine-month gig, but I thought it would be a good launch from college life. While there, I was gently, and sometimes not-so-gently, excoriated for “working too fast.” Then I ended up being dismissed after six weeks.
har har
I was a QC enumerator last year. It was my job to confirm addresses. The HHC(hand held computer) was a mess at first but finally did keep online. The HHC accepted all zeros in the zip field. I spent hours correcting this. No sane computer programmer would allowed all zeros to be acceptable. Only a few (maybe 6) states even begin with a single zero. It didn’t take me and other QC people long to figure out how to game the system. Find a good string of addresses in an assigned block and “bingo” it would say close this block it all “appears” to be good. I was sent all over the place. North for 30 miles and south for 45 miles. They there was a mad crush to finish up all assignments for some reason. I think they had other plans. A lot of unanswered questions. I was called back to do this again but am unable right now. They have kept me on the list and will check back with me later to see if I was interested.
Hey, it’s guys like this and other census “workers” who are supposedly going to give Hope-a-Dope his first “positive” monthly job numbers.
Hopenchange, baby!
♫Happy days are here again,
The skies above are clear again!
So let’s sing a song of cheer again,
Happy days are here again!♪
♪Altogether shout it now,
There’s no one who can doubt it now;
So let’s tell the world about it now,
Happy days are here again!♫
A 5 day course on how to say, “Go in that room, strip, and put on this humiliating robe that shows more of your privates than a G-string.”
A 3 day course in how to say, “Take 2 aspirin and call me in the morning.”
A 4 day course in how to rub an alcohol swab on your arm.
I wonder what they’ll need to use a stethoscope!?!?
What happens when a resident receives the notices, but not the Census form? Is there a way to get the form in order to complete and submit it?
BTW just because Seinfeld used a similar story line doesn’t mean someone else is taking their story from Seinfeld. I’ve never wathced Seinfeld, but I am familiar with employees being reprimanded for working too fast. Seems like Seinfeld borrowed the story from real life….
Same people will visit your house as part of Obamacare…..
Those of you who have taken the test and scored high but haven’t heard back…. hello, you did too well. They can’t have you overachievers sitting there making the rest of them look bad. I bet if you had missed a few questions, you’d be working now.
I saw on Drudge today that the census compters were having some problems. Now, if I were supicious of this bho and team, I would think the problems were going to find that LOTS of blacks and hispanics were overcounted in the census. This will make more house members for the states who might be d’s! These same computers seem to have problems in areas where d’s are running for office. The bottom line: more voters for d’s!
L
Same thing happend to me working for the Honolulu Board of Water Supply. Don’t work too fast, it makes everyone else look lazy.
Try this scenario:
1. 7:00 a.m. A resident notices a stream of water coming up from under the pavement.
2. 2:30 p.m. An investigator goes to the location, and confirms that, yes, there is a leak.
3. 3:30 p.m. Quitting time. Supervisor asks who wants to work overtime to fix leak.
4. 4:30 p.m. Overtime crew arrives at scene. Excavates road. Puts up barricades. Turns off everyone’s water at 5:00 p.m. so residents can’t cook dinner.
5. 6:30 p.m. Dump truck hauls away first load of dirt/mud to landfill. Workers must wait 1.5 hours for truck to return.
6. 9:30 p.m. Dump truck hauls away second load of dirt/mud. Overtime crew performs cut/splice of new main.
7. 11:00 p.m. Dump truck backfills hole with new dirt. Workers use tamper to compress backfill, keeping residents awake with loud “rat-a-tat-a” noise.
8. 12:30 pm. Dump truck (same one) returns with blacktop patch. Tamper compacts blacktop just a residents were entering REM sleep.
9. 1:00 a.m. Overtime crew leaves site, after making sure all trucks make “BEEP-BEEP-BEEP” noise backing up.
10. 1:30 p.m. Overtime crew returns to yard. Overtime paid from 3:30 pm to 1:30 am. Workers are given COMP time next day to stay home and rest.
Your taxes at work, Hawaii style.
I live in a single family home. It is one story and obviously not an apartment building. However, I got a “census coming!” mailer for my address as well as another one for my address followed by an “A”, as though there were another unit there. I threw away the “A” census form when it came, as there is no “A” here. I’m waiting for someone to show up and insist it needs to be filled out.
Oh, and there is the 13 BILLION spent on census advertising. My personal opinion of those commercials is: They suck and are a waste of money.
Dan Patrick (TX – State Senator) posted the following on his FB status.
BTW ~ My husband wrote “Americans” under the race choice.
More proof that they don’t care about carbon emissions!
rightwingmom,
We put American under race also.
L
I got the CB letter with the correct address on it and the census form with an incorrect address on it. The reminder card had the correct address. I debated whether to throw it away, write zero for number of residents or to return it to sender.
The “please comply” ads are pathetic-nothing about being a Constitutional requirement just drivel about revenue sharing. Pathetic.
For race I put “other” and wrote in Spanish-Mayan Hybrid just to keep the flow
I have a BS in Business Administration, a Minor in English, and have my own in-home business freelancing for car magazines. I applied for the Census and completed their test. Missed just two questions. I was called back and told to come in for 3 days of training at the end of March, for an 8 week position. Then, a couple weeks later I was called back and told the position had changed. I would instead attend the 3 day training, then complete a 3 night position where I was to work from 8 PM to 8 AM counting the homeless in town. With a 3 month old baby at home I could use the money, but can’t leave my wife to handle the baby for 3 straight nights. Not and still expect her to go to work each day too. So I told them that. End result: I’m not working for the Census nor have I been called back for another position.
Instead, I made plans to go to a racetrack and shoot cars for three days (on a weekend) for three magazine stories. I will continue to make my own money in this economy no matter what!
letget ~ EXCELLENT!
Like they say on the TV adds, if we don’t fill out the forms, how will we figure out who we are, or if we are, or where the hell we are? I respond, therefore I am! Like, dude, how will I know where the streets are needed if we don’t count the homeless living under the bridge down by the river? Maybe put one of those little counter thingeys across the street? No, they don’t cost $15.25 an hour plus mileage. How many hospitals needed? Mmmm. Maybe check the empty beds in the existing ones? Check building permits for new homes? Oh, that’s right, haven’t seen many of those lately, have we, and the hospitals will legally be filled shortly, even if there aren’t any doctors to treat the poor buggers!
Both of my college age daughters are working doing data entry. Mixups and mishandling of the data collection and the lack of articulation with existing systems means not only are they spending time playing Uno and spoons, their short term jobs keep getting extended.
Even the Post Office is screwing this thing up. The forms are suppose to be pre-sorted by the post office. The forms are suppose to arrive ready to roll. Instead the post office is delivering them like bulk mail and folks that were hired to do data entry are instead being diverted to do mail sorting.
Sadly these jobs were about the only decent paying jobs that worked for kids in college in our area.
Oh, best answer for race — really fast!
“and wrote in”
I encourage folks to write all sorts of things in. Here’s what happens.
When there is stuff that is hand written, a human has to look at it. Someone has to try and make sense of it.
As a result any hand written forms slow the data processing process to a crawl.
If folks keep writing stuff in my daughter’s “couple of months” jobs will more than likely take them on through their post graduate degrees!
As a father struggling with the cost of life and college tuition, I thank each and everyone of you creative types.
An by the way I’ve been told folks are writing more stuff in this time than every before….
Can’t be discussed in terms of what folks are writing in of course. Just that lots of hand written stuff that is slowing the process to a crawl.
And then there’s the Chinese Mandarin language data entry positions that are still open.
I worked for the CB on the last go round in ’98. I experienced most of what the letter writer did. It was a second job and I drove around on some weeknights and most weekends looking for new addresses in the boonies. Efficiency is not the gov’ts strong point.
No. It wasn’t. It was a real incident, and wasn’t unique. I know that it is normal, and I know why. Don’t presume to know more about who I know and what I know than I do.
Sounds like a union job at Lordstown, OH.
80% of the bloodsucking vampire-pigs at the trough union workers in federal, state and local government could be eliminated (preferably by teleportation to the heart of the sun) and just as much work would be done.
(Sorry, in a bad mood today recovering from a nasty cold, but my point still stands.)
I remeber seeing the guy last summer come out not once but twice. The first time was in fact to enter our address in his computer and the second time 9the same guy mind you) was to verify that the house was still there. I remeber cause that was the joke he said as he rolled his eyes about it.
All that and I still have not got my Census form or even the post card telling me it is coming….
I thought this guy was an attorney describing his firm…. :0
I’m sorry Dr. smith, your patients have a 98% survival rate and it’s making the rest of us look bad.
texvet#41, hey, I am on your side. I said “unreal” in that the mailman was penalized for delivering the mail too quickly! Sorry for not being clear…
On Seinfield, Jerry got Newman in trouble for delivering the mail too quickly.
How about 5K? or marathon?
Can somebody show me where the constitution AUTHORIZES the use of census data for any of the purposes given in the CB’s television ads?
Remember folks – if the government doesn’t have info, it’s much more difficult to implement socialism…the more they know, the easier it becomes to control you
I have seen things in government buildings that make my skin crawl. The combined IQ in most government buildings is well below ZERO in Washington, DC.
These people can’t do anything right. And now they will run our health care? I guess if the mortality rate skyrockets you will save at least some money on health care in the short run but the government run funerals will eat up all the savings. I mean the funeral for Tutankhamen will look cheap compared to what the federal government will spend on a funeral…
I met one of these guys a couple of months ago at one of my places of business that was closed. Since I happened to be there he asked a few questions about people living there and I pointed out it was a material recycling facility with no front wall. It is located in a place that is ignored by most all regulators (unincorporated Harris County but seemingly within the City of Houston) that is so distressed from over crowding of mobile homes to several unregulated businesses. I asked him how many people lived in the block of mobile homes and he said he was too afraid to go in there.
I had a hard time wrapping my mind around what his purpose was out there. “Jes checkin’ addresses”
You can bet they’ll find your address when it’s time to find out why you failed to respond.
Hey its what we all will be doing before long.
No more goofing off. Got your mandatory AmeriCorpes badge you’ll need it at all checkpoints?
I was talking to a lady at the census booth at a local trade fair last week. I told her I was only going to fill out some of the questions (like the one the constitution allows) and asked her what would happen. She told me that there were severe penalties for failing to answer all of the questions. I said “well what are they? maybe I’ll just pay the fine and tell you to go away.” She said it wasn’t published information so she didn’t know specifically what he penalty was. I told her that she’s nuts, everything the government does is published, she just needs to find it.
Then I told her to not send anyone to my house or the dog would get them. Course I refused to tell her my name.
I was one of the first wave of census “enumerators”. Our group was told that we would have 11 weeks of work. But then they cut is back to one month & forced us to finish up early – but no overtime was allowed.
However, I was one of those “jobs created” (for a month anyway). Interesting while it lasted.
Before we were married, my wife experienced the same thing when she started working for a state government agency. She didn’t stay there long.
Government is the LEAST efficient group to do practically any task. That is why you want the government to be involved in as few things as possible. And why the Obama Nation of nationalized government-run everything is truly an abomination.
Maybe you could start a competition for census workers (cw)…best TRUE (& verifiable somehow) stories get something. ( i dunno, we’ll figure it out) should be plenty of cw’s willing to spill the beans, heck the jobs done soon anyway.
Let us know, we’ll twitter the heck out of it.
Since I only entered the number of people living here and nothing else, I wonder how long before I get a visit.
In the current Census TV ad, the main character is wearing bunny slippers. How cuuuuute…
I wrote this little ditty about the census forms. It’s sung to the tune of “Santa Claus is Coming to Town.” It’s also on The People’s Karaoke at The People’s Cube.
***********
Census Forms Are Coming To Town
The mailman is here,
He’s waiting for me.
I’m handed the mail,
And what do I see?
Census Forms Are Coming To Town.
Hispanic or not,
They will need your race.
Don’t check the box,
And you’ll be erased.
Census Forms Are Coming To Town.
The questions are just stupid.
You won’t answer them all.
They’ll slap the cuffs on nice and tight,
And you’ll stand against the wall.
They’re locking the bolts,
And aiming real straight.
‘Cause right wingers are,
Just all filled with hate.
Census Forms Are Coming To Town.
You won’t vote Democratic,
That’s just too bad for you.
They’ll save your life if you agree,
To be a good Bundist, too.
Conservative thoughts?
Well, just say adieu.
Representation,
Won’t be for you.
Census Forms Are Coming To Town.
I’m unemployed and my husband was pushing me to take a position with the Census.
I refused to because i wasn’t going to answer all the questions therefore it would be hypocrisy for me to demand from other what I wouldn’t do.
I’m still unemployed-but at least my dignity’s still intact.
I never got my census form. I suppose some guy from miles away will drive over once or twice to catch me at home. Good luck, except for weekends. Probably catch me when I’m busy. Maybe my address doesn’t exist to the government.
On March 30th, 2010 at 4:33 pm, d1carter said:
I could easily be wrong, but let me guess: is your brother-in-law white?
On March 30th, 2010 at 4:40 pm, redc1c4 said:
This is what
“Change”REPARATIONS looks like.If you are a white male who pays taxes, you don’t qualify to receive the census bureau
paycheckreparations.How could the managers be so careless about the wastefulness of all of this?
Well, as always with the government, it is OPM. No problem.
How bout this WTF moment….
I walked past my supermarket and hey had a “Census Help Desk” set up last week in case you had trouble filling it out. How is that possible??
So, the G’ment needs the census to know when and where to build roads and stuff. Well in my area, the city/county/state DOT seems to build roads 12 years after they were “needed”. The CB needs to speed up their information gathering process.
# 36
Based on some of the previous postings here, and your 2 kids getting a CB job is no reflection on you … right?
J/K
Anyway, since your 2 kids are in the “entry department” makes sense b/c the CB needs a “higher level” to “fix” the lower level.
Exactly. That’s why me and about a dozen of my neighbors checked african-american on the form.
I look white? Prove it! I can’t help it if my great-great-great grandfather/grandmother/uncle was black.
I want my OBAMA MONEY!
It is a pity that my census forms arrived but are in English and I don’t speak that language…
for RACE: Lost
Even though I’m an evil white male of European descent, I did manage to get hired by the CB. I worked for them in 2000, hired late in the process as ‘cleanup’ or followup work. My job was to go out to addresses that didn’t properly complete their forms. Talk about irate! Yikes! Most people didn’t want to give me the time of day. When I explained that I was just earning a buck, most people were cool about it. If they didn’t want to answer me, I just filled in whatever.
I live near Columbus, OH, but I am in an adjoining county, so I had to travel to the county seat some 30 miles away to apply, and take the test and train. Need I repeat how clueless most people in the training and position were?
Anyway, I would meet with my supervisor at a public location halfway between my house and the CB office, even though I was supposed to drive to HQ. As explained by my supe, so “he could get some mileage in too.”
On a lighter note, I leave you with this gem.
We were in Disney last year (at Epcot) and while waiting in line some census workers were talking to us. They were there on the government dime. They had been to Universal, restaurants, Epcot, and several other high-priced places. They had fast passes to every ride and they were going to a “fancy dinner” and out dancing that night. They were from several other states, but they were living it up in FL.
for race I put Human.
Can you imagine if we were just now entering the race to the moon with the Russians? Do you think we’d do it now as fast as we did in the 60′s-70′s?
Sex: yes please.
There’s a census worker in our community who is set up in a public site for people to come visit if they need help filling out their census forms. No one comes, so she spends four hours every afternoon texting on her blackberry, reading books and magazines and/or doing word puzzles and probably makes $15 an hour.
I have yet to do mine. If I get to it, fine. If not, so be it.
The guy is working…
And this is the one government program that is putting people to work temporarily, and not permanently.
He’ll find a real job, and I hope he writes a book.
I’m going to send the Sensless bureau a letter
to tell them to await my census form,
my census form a week later,
then a postcard to tell them I sent my form, please tabulate it.
If everyone does this,
we may save Saturday mail delivery.
I still need to fill ours out. Guess that’ll happen tomorrow.
We decided to put “American” for the race. (That is the best answer, as we are mutts.) The runner-up was “Celtic.”
We got the standard letter saying we would get the form, the form and a week later a blank letter with only the date, two days after the census form was postmarked.
I sent it back with “American” as the race.
Given that the only constitutionally legal question on the census is “how many people live there”, why bother filling in anything else?
Race and/or homeownership has nothing to do with apportionment of representatives. Please read and understand your constitution before giving the federal government ANY info not authorized by the constitution.
Information is power – why give them power. The Constitution goes to great lengths and very explicitly limits the power of the federal government.
I had one of those Census address checkers come by my place last year. I just happened to be outside washing my car at the time. I talked with the guy for a minute or so, and he gave me the handout described above.
I live in a small townhouse complex, 36 units that could be covered in about 15 minutes. I wonder how he counted his time.
I have a friend who signed up to be a Census taker. He has a PHD took his test and all but was never called back.
Lets see:
Letter from the Census telling me the census is coming=$0.44
Second Letter from Census telling me to be sure to fill out the census form -$0.44
Census form =$0.44 (however this was an over weight letter)
Mail in census form =$0.44
Total postage = $1.76 X 100.000,000 households.
Ball park census mailing bill $176,000,000.00. And who picks up the tab?
If you think this is bad you ought to try reading the instructions for the West Virginia Personal Income Tax forms. I swear the person that wrote them had a third grade education at most because they made absolutely no sense.
And why the heck is the W-2 My company made no longer good enough? Why do I have to fill out another form with that information that they should already have in a computer somewhere?
Gah…
Okay, I’m done. Gave them number of people, all Americans, their gender and ages. No other information was given. If they want to drive all the way out here to the sticks…so be it. A waste of their time. I’m a snot today.
There were two census workers on my street last summer. My little street that is mostly taken up by a tank farm.
I have the number of my house is numerals over the front door and in letters over the garage. The woman spent a good 10 minutes asking me if this was indeed #77.
While the guy who was with her spent that 10 min making sure the apartment building next to me was really there.
When we got the census, we filled out how many people live here and that we are Americans. That’s all they need to fulfill the Constitutional requirements and that’s all they’re getting.
I was in Church on Sunday when in walks a gentleman that I had never seen before. He had an official looking ID on. I greeted him and he told me his name. He then told me that he was from the Census Bureau and was there to recruit workers. Our pastor was courteous and announced that there was a Census worker who was recruiting if anyone was looking for a job. Frankly, it put me off just a tad knowing that Christians are not allowed to pray at government schools but the government feels no qualms about recruiting in our churches.
You people do realize that everyone who has returned a form up to this point is guilty of falsifying a federal document right? the form clearly states to list the names and ages of those people in your household ON APRIL 1. My calendar still says March.
I don’t believe that letter. Sounds too contrived.
Years ago I worked in a summer public-sector position at a naval shipyard. The full-time employees cautioned: “don’t work yourself out of a job”. So I guess nothings’s changed.
At the end of my stint I got invited to the shipyard commander’s office, where the Admiral gave me a Letter of Appreciation for my work, which involved an engineering study of submarine hull designs. “No biggie”, I thought. Not so: a couple of lifer employees said they would have killed to get such a letter, as it would have allowed them to increase their pay grades ahead of schedule.
Anyway: Now being semi-retired, I worked as a Census Enumerator last spring. 40 hours of training, and then….50 hours of work…followed by…”we’re done…get outta here , all of you”. Everyone was laid off 2 weeks into what should have been a six-week gig.
We were all disappointed, as it was a good job, being outside all day, getting exercise, and striving for 100% accuracy in locating every “dwelling”, places were people live or could live.— which sometimes isn’t easy. One locked door, one street number, but how many apartments inside? Sometimes external post boxes would tell you, sometimes electrical meters. Sometimes you would encounter mixed commercial/residential housing requiring knocking on doors to sort things out. beachmom, your Enumerator would be looking to see how many units were occupied at that apartment, including perhaps a live-in “super”: the physical address is only the starting point. Ditto the address letters over the garage — some garages have separate little apartments above them.
I encountered very little hostility. A few people worried that we were tax assessors, so that issue had to be addressed.
We never understood what the GPS info we took was to be used for. I often wondered if it was to help program the in-coming airstrikes on conservatives —-;)
Interestingly, the Census subcontractor supervisors were named Jamal and Muhammed. Jamal was a dead ringer for Barack —seriously; they could be twins. He also seemed very focused and competent, so I can’t fault him as a professional. Still, his group got little value for all that paid training. We did, in fact, work ourselves out of a job.
I was asked back for phase two, but I declined, in that I would have been pressing people to fill out the form’s specious “race” stuff —-Korean is a race??? If I objected to racial categories I couldn’t see myself asking someone else to respond to such questions.
If the writer was paid $15.25/hr, I’m scared to ask what the QC folks were paid.
And, I agree w/EdDantes–it does sound a bit contrived. But I’m a very suspicious person.
Wrong: go see the FAQ at the Census site. If you plan to be living April 1 at the address on your form, you can go ahead and fill it out.
What’s with this $.44/letter stuff?
Ever look at bulk mail rates? They run around 30% of first class.
(but I agree: the extra mailings are excessive)
I call bullbleep on this one: when I was asked to come back, the CB guy who spoke to my wife commented that I got a perfect 28 score on the test I took last year. I’m sure situations vary from place to place, but almost all the other people in my “class” seemed to be college-educated, except for one jackass who had a racial chip on his shoulder. He quit before training was over.
Now that I live overseas I guess I am missing all the fun!
i don’t: at least half the people taking the test when i did were retesting, since they hadn’t managed to get 10 out of 28 previously, and, from the questions and length of time it took to get the non-test portions of the paperw*rk done, there weren’t too many Mensa members there that day, including the two paragons administering the test.
the one lady claimed to have a bachelors and that she was fluent in five languages other than English, which made me wonder why the only j*b she could find was struggling to explain how to fill out a simple form.
the most frightening anecdote was her bragging about someone who had been hired as a temp, but who had just recently been converted to “full time” at $72K/year…
#98: as I said, situations vary from place to place.
The earlier poster suggested that getting a high score was a bar to landing a CB job, and that’s clearly not a universally valid conclusion, especially since he/you offer no evidence for such a claim, and my own experience falsifies it.
Poorly educated people getting CB jobs does not mean that highly educated people don’t get them as well. I offer myself as a case in point, and at least one other poster here also scored a perfect 28 before getting his CB job.
I don’t know why you would be “frightened” that a temp wound up with a $72K full-time job —perhaps the person was very qualified for some slot other than the one she took as a temp. I myself was offered (and declined) a job in the full-time Census Bureau — not with the sub-contractor I was working for. (I had the education and skills, but the work itself didn’t appeal to me).
I plan to be living on April 1 but you know what? I might die this evening in a car crash too. Or the mortgage company might get their computer systems screwed up and I might find an unexpected eviction notice on my door when I get home tonight. Or my wife might decide I don’t live there anymore and I might find my clothes on the front lawn this evening. all sorts of things might happen between now and tomorrow morning. and the FAQ might just say that, but that does not make it true. The law says April 1, it does not say March 20th. The IRS can give out bad information all day long too and if you follow it, you are the one thrown in the klink, not the IRS webmaster or the guy answering the phone.
LOL Rorschach–or the hoosegow, even.
Rorschach, if the FAQ at the CB site says it’s OK, that’s a strong legal defense. I don’t know where you get your IRS analogy from, and I think you’re pulling out of a warm, dark place.
IN any case The CB itself has no law enforcement power.
MILLIONS of people have already filled out their forms and mailed them in. Do you really think the CB is going penalize people for doing so? What possible incentive would they have for doing that?
Perhaps the FEMA camps allegedy being built to house dissidents are “actually” there to house early Census filers.
But that’s crackpot territory.
Oh and if you file early and die before April 1, I’d say you are in the clear.
(wink wink)