How do you feel about the Census?

[ajrsmom]

Last night, the evening news reported that hundreds of thousands of Census forms had been lost. It really bothers me that they are spending millions of dollars to send out 2nd, 3rd and 4th copies of the Census to some households....yet they are laying off hundreds more teachers in our area. To prove what?? The government already has all of the info. that they are asking.

How do you feel about it? Have you filled out your form and sent it in?

[Coll]

Mine was filled out and put back in the mail the same day I received it. If I don't have to pay the postage, I'd fill out another one.

[Lisa Berry]

It takes 5 minutes and is how the Census complies info to distribute to agencies that give us representatives and fundings and in general use those statistics so marketing can be directed where needed. Are they (the Census) perfect? No but at least they are trying to do a job no one wants them to even attempt. Yes I have worked temporarily for them as an Enumerator and recently GPS ing addresses. Once again it takes 5 minutes and could be worth alot to areas that need it.

[Sammi1961]

I filled mine out and sent it right in. I didn't hear that many forms were lost. How will they be handling that situation? The form is so easy to fill out I would have no problem doing it again if needed.

[RobertaD]

I had a very short form that I filled out. I worked as a Census taker 10 yrs ago and all the forms that we had to follow up on where very long and involved.


Roberta

[trekmom]

everyone is getting short forms this year-although I did read about a possible select few who will get a long, more involved form to fill out. I want the long form-I wanted the long form 10years ago. From a genealogy stance these forms can be invaluable for the future generations.
The forms that are "lost", will be resent and if they don't make it back then a person will actually make a call on the household to get the info filled out. This is why they will not hire anyone who does not live in the county. My dh and sil tried to get jobs with the census, but our county was full up, and they wouldn't hire them for the next county over-they say that people will talk better to people who live in the same area-makes sense except why would anyone know the census taker lives in the same county, not necessarily in the neighborhood their canvassing, just in the same county-so in that way it didn't make sense and there were still a lot of jobs open in at least two near-by counties....
My dad thought about throwing his form away, but he had it filled out the same day he got it-as I did....

[cat lover]

I filled ours out and mailed it back in shortly after I received it. It really wasnlt a big deal to fill out, but I do wonder with that information having to already be in the governments hands why did they spend all that money trying to gather information. I know several people that refuse to send it back and no one had better cross onto their property and start asking them questions. We live in a very rural area and unless you are invited you just don't go knocking on people's doors. And you most defintely don't cross through a closed gate! So, it could be interesting around here and I'm sure there are many other places like that too.

[trekmom]

cat lover, that's exactly why they only hire people from the area they'll be canvassing, so that maybe it's a neighbor asking the questions or at least someone they might be acquainted with.
I don't feel that the census is invasive or threatening to anyone-but what people don't know they fear....
I totally look at the census as a future help/aide for people working on their family trees/genealogy, to prove where their family were living and where they may have come from-of course, most people don't think that long term, since it takes at least 70 years for the census to be released to the public.
Oh well, the census will be debated every ten years regardless of how they do it, I wish they'd decide that it would be OK to do it online though, maybe with a choice of questionaires to answer-short; long or a very involved form

[cau]

I thought it was no big deal to fill out. It was very simple and if it helps my village why not

[KSJEn6891]

We received our notification that a notification was coming, than we received that notification, and than at last the census came in. I filled out most of it, but felt the notification, and some of the questions really were not beneficial for the needs of the government to know. For one thing there were three pages dedicated to the "twelve (12)" names, ages, birth-dates, gender, race (although I think it was really ethnicity), education level, income, whether they lived at home / campus / out of country, owned or rented home, whether they supported other family members, and what type of employment they were in. I can't recall the last three pages, because they basically covered everything on the first three, but I think the fron had the address and the "ID scan-bar" on it, and the back one may/may not have included the return address.

I know the commercial ads say it is suppose to help counties to know whether they need more / less jobs in a certain area than in others, however, with the government perpetually closing up business that built a lot of these towns and cities within these counties, they should already know what counties need more / less than anywhere else. And further more to waste natural resources and tax dollars to send out notice(s) of the "dreaded" census' arrival is just plain "spendy" during a time when they should be conserving what little funds America still has left - maybe even using it for jobs now... not 2030