For decades conservatives have worked to see that blacks and latinos are undercounted in the Census. Now they are voluntarily disenfranchising themselves by refusing to send in the forms. Should we be happy about that? After all, it could cost them seats in Congress and votes in the Electoral College, and it will mean more federal dollars are available for blue and purple areas of the country. But, the thing is, the Census is supposed to accurately count the population of the country, and political power is supposed to be divvied up on the basis of a real assessment of the country’s demography. So, no, I am not happy that the most conservative areas are the least responsive to the Census, even though it serves my narrow political interests. You can’t cure stupid, and I will weep no tears for these folks, but I am not happy to see a new strain of irrational paranoia taking root in the reddest areas of this country.
It’s dangerous.
And the police are battling gangs in California.
Civilization can become unbalanced at the drop of a hat. Democracy works because the population thinks they have a say in the government, take away that and you have mob rule and anarchy.
in the gov’t org that determined the Census questions that demand answers? Salary and a bunch of other info requested by the Census that we’re trained not to give to scammers via telephone or email.
If the question was just enumeration (ie, how many people in your house) the Census would get 98+% replies.
Yep your last statement is true. However, it is my understanding that the Census does not ever inquire about salary, even on the long form. Is that untrue?
because we got an “American community survey” form last year that had those sorts of questions (salary, ocupation, etc) from the Census. And when I didn’t answer the first round of invasive questions then sent another form and a nasty letter, so we finally answered those. My roommate’s salary/occupation, as well.
As far as I can tell, those response forms are sent at random, and seem to be shipped out over the years (?). The “real” census I got last month was just # of people in household, race, age for each.
As wrong as it is, I can’t help but take a certain satisfaction in seeing the wingnuts shoot themselves in the foot like this.
seems to me, given the data available from the census bureau that this ‘concern’ is a bit misleading, if not unwarranted. overall, there’s been a 50% response rate to date, and this interactive map will give you the current data down to the town/township level if you wish.
overall, some of the conservative states, esp in the south are lagging a bit, but not substantially that l can see.
but there’s always a way to cherry pick the data to make a point. and there will always be outliers like those benen points to.
if a few of the crazies want to sit it out, it’s fine by me. ymmv.
Arabs, on the other hand, are making a concerted and organized effort to be counted in this census AS ARABS despite the fact that there is no such category, and we are instructed to check “white”.
Of course, whether this is a good idea or not remains to be seen. The census WAS once used to track down Japanese-Americans, and I understand it was also used after 9/11 as a result of the Patriot Act, although I have not confirmed that to my satisfaction. So, it wanting to be counted might not end up to have been such a great idea after all.
Of course this was before the Patriot Act:
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4191/is_20000324/ai_n9965696/
I believe that story is true. I am sure that for the most part the Census tightly guards the personal information it collects. On the other hand, I have heard from some sources I normally do trust that post-Patriot Act the Census was used to help the general Arab/Muslim “roundup” that followed. I really don’t know for a fact that is true, and I hope it is not. I have also heard from even more, and generally very trustworthy sources that the census was misused even more egregiously during WW II to round up Japanese-Americans, rob them of their lives, businesses, and property, and put them in concentration camps. I have also not confirmed this independently, so maybe it is not true.
Unfortunately, under the pretext of “national security” the holiest and most precious of principles are subject to being undermined, and even scuttled altogether.
Oh yes, it’s a fact that the census was abused by FDR for the Japanese, but also for Germans and Italians.
However, protections had to be removed for this, and they were put back up, thus we have that protection that I linked.
I’m not sure if the Patriot Act removed those protections, though, much like the legislation FDR pushed through did:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Powers_Act_of_1941
If protections can be removed once, they can be removed again, can’t they? Therefore claims that personal information one gives to the Census is sacrosanct are pretty bloody fucking hollow. In fact, they are meaningless as far as I am concerned and it pisses me off that they are pretending there is no risk when they know from history that there most certainly is. The least they could do is acknowledge that they have allowed information given to them in confidence to be abused.
I am of two minds about filling out the Census. One of those minds has serious reservations about voluntarily giving up to the government any personal information I do not absolutely have to. The other mind recognizes the value of being counted, and counted correctly. I suppose I will fill it out, but with some reluctance.
Strange, but we didn’t get a census form at our house. We live in an area where the US Postal Service does not offer home delivery (although UPS, Fed Ex, etc. don’t have that problem) and are forced to use a post office box for our mail. Today I heard a rumor at work that the local post office had returned all the census forms that were addressed to PO boxes, so I sent an inquiry to my Congressman’s staff.
It will be interesting to see what develops.
You can have mine. I don’t feel all that good about filling it out anyway. ;o}
Mrs. ID always puts down “other-human” when asked the race question.