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The Irony Of It All
Brad Hollerbach

Census Bureau Letter A Senseless Waste Of Money

Posted Friday, March 19, 2010, at 2:00 PM

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  • Right on!!!!! I felt the same way when I received the useless letter. What a waste of our tax dollars. But it did instill fear in my heart of what might be next. Will we be receiving letters every spring from the Bureau of Standards advising us that we should expect daylight savings time the following week? Will the IRS send us notice that that our tax forms will be arriving the next week? How about advance notice of holidays? I would appreciate a friendly advice from my govenment friends that Independence Day is just around the corner. Who knows, I might have forgotten to get my yearly calendar. Perhaps because the National Weather Service forgot to send me a notice that winter is over.

    -- Posted by ParkerDaws on Fri, Mar 19, 2010, at 6:37 AM
  • Uh, Brad, I heard a radio story the other day that the census believes it will save money by sending out the alert AND a follow-up postcard to those who don't respond. That story said that the bureau was seeking a 6% improvement in response rates, which would save on the cost of sending someone to the door of the household.

    Now, I'm reading other information online, and it says the bureau expects a 6-12% improvement for an alert AND follow-up postcard.

    My two questions: 1) Why not just send the follow-up postcard? 2) Does it really cost $57 per household visit? Here's info from another blog:

    ------

    So I called Census officials to ask the question: Why send out a letter saying that the Census is coming?

    The answer: To raise awareness.

    Census surveys show that 45 percent of people don't know about the Census -- a number I find shocking, but... And further Census surveys show that these letters increase awareness of the Census. That increased awareness increases the Census form return rate by 6 to 12 percent. That increase has a real return on investment -- every 1 percent increase in Census returns saves the government $85 million in operational costs associated with census takers going door to door to follow up with households that did not mail back the form. It costs $57 per household on average to send a Census enumerator out to get the data.

    -- Posted by Legend on Fri, Mar 19, 2010, at 8:33 AM
  • I completely agree about the letter. After watching the clever tv ads, attending First Friday Coffee where the census was covered, I was aware the census was being conducted. I really didn't need the letter to remind me. I too thought that was the census form. Our government just seems to enjoy shoveling out money we don't have to pay for things we don't need. Geeze.

    -- Posted by Happy2BHere on Fri, Mar 19, 2010, at 9:55 AM
  • Hmmmmmm, so the Census is conducting surveys to assess their own impact and coming up with results that makes them look favorable. Sounds like a conflict of interest if you ask me.

    By the way, readership in this blog has increased 100,000% since November 18, 2008. I know this is true because the Irony Of It All Institute says it is so.

    Thanks for reading.

    -- Posted by Brad_Hollerbach on Fri, Mar 19, 2010, at 10:15 AM
  • If the government is going to waste money trying to make sure we respond, why not spend it as positive reinforcement? I'd like $10 for sending my census back, maybe $20 for doing it within ten working days, that would be much better than a dumb letter. Or here's a novel idea, how about taking the census on the INTERNET?

    -- Posted by eaea49 on Fri, Mar 19, 2010, at 9:03 PM
  • Good suggestion, EAEA49. It's been proven that people respond to positive incentives such as being paid to fill out a form. Although I could see that being an opportunity for fraud.

    While taking the census over the Internet might seem like a good idea, there are a whole lot of security holes that would have to be resolved to make that practical. And the census bureau would probably have to send twice as much regular mail just to educate everyone about the new process.

    TFR

    -- Posted by Brad_Hollerbach on Fri, Mar 19, 2010, at 10:06 PM
  • As far as the reminder that a letter was was to come, maybe those mail carriers were going that way anyway.

    -- Posted by Old John on Fri, Mar 19, 2010, at 11:45 PM
  • How about that over priced census ad on the Super Bowl? How much did that cost? And whose government employee's brother's sister's uncle's company get paid to design and produce that ad???

    -- Posted by rockstarr on Sat, Mar 20, 2010, at 8:42 AM
  • First I got the letter (by mail) which told me to expect a census form

    Then a specially hired person handcarried the form in a plastic bag which she hung on my doorknob before I got to the door

    Then I immediately filled out the form and returned it by mail the next morning

    A few days later a census worker came by to check on my address...when I suggested that they could have gotten it from the form that I returned, I was told that many times these addresses were not accurate...

    Then I read in the Wall Street Journal that there were bar codes on the census forms so that the forms could be tracked...

    Wonder what's next...

    -- Posted by walela on Tue, Mar 23, 2010, at 4:58 AM