Wednesday, April 21, 2010

It Makes No Census


About six weeks ago (or so), on a Friday, I received an envelope from the US Census Bureau. Knowing that 2010 was a census year, and it had been advertised all over the place for some time, I assumed it was the census form.

It was not. It was a mass mailing (to I assume all American households) that let us know we could soon expect the census form, with a nice reminder that when we do receive it, we should fill it out and return it as soon as possible. For easy reference, we shall refer to this mailing as the "pre-census form form". This mass mailing reminder was filed appropriately.

The next Monday (2 mail days later), the full form was received in the mail. That was, indeed, "soon". So soon that I feared that some Americans, if they had gone away for that weekend, might confuse the pre-census form form envelope with the actual census form envelope and "file appropriately" the wrong one. "No!" I screamed at no one in particular. "What will happen?!" I questioned my front hallway. I decided that I would go fill out the actual census form and return it immediately to take my mind off the situation.

About two weeks later, I received a post card from the US Census Bureau, politely reminding me to fill out my form and return it. We will refer to this post card reminder as the "post-census form form". I was annoyed now. I actually did mail mine in and was certain they had received it by now.

So I started really thinking about how much this whole effort is costing us (taxpayers). I am sorry but with all the on the ground manpower - media and print advertising and online presence that this year's census has got going for it, did BOTH the pre-mailer and post-mailer really need to get sent (and paid for by us)?

It does not make census to me.

2 comments:

Josh (Bored) said...

I love your blogs!

Jack said...

Thanks Josh!