Fuck The Census 2010

Fuck The Census

Today in the mail I received a letter from the Census department. At this point I was all for it. Yeah, I've seen your constant bombardment of ads on the TV like the following ad;



and being that I have worked in an election polling place, I knew the importance of these sorts of things on the local level. So I figured that I would set aside 10 minutes for 10 questions and do this THANG! Got my glasses on, poured myself a nice glass of Whiskey and was ready to rock in my favorite chair with my favorite pen.

I thought to myself that this thing was a little thin. Man, they must have been on cost cutting mode since the state of the countries economics is pretty grim. Good for them, I thought. I opened up this official sounding letter and what do I see?

Dear Resident

About one week from now you will receive a 2010 Census form in the mail. When you receive your form, please fill it out and mail it in promptly.

Your response is important. Results from the 2010 Census will be used to help each community get its fair share of government funds for highways, schools, health facilities, and many other programs you and your neighbors need. Without a complete, accurate census, your community may not receive its fair share.

Thank you in advance for your help

Sincerely
Robert M. Groves
Director, U.S. Census Bureau

WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS SHIT?!?! was my first thought. Are you fucking kidding me. You sent me a letter in the mail to let me know that I will get a letter in the mail next week? That's like calling someone up to tell them that they will get a longer call later. We already spent a couple million just advertising the Census on the Superbowl for fucks sake, do you think people AREN'T aware of the Census coming?



This didn't serve any purpose other than waste tax payer money. If it was to warn you that you have 7 days before you get a letter, guess what.. I think we already knew it was coming. And those who didn't, chances are they didn't even open this two paragraph letter to begin with, nor will they open another Census letter when they receive it. In fact, I think that they would just throw away the real Census letter thinking that they already got it in this stupid practice letter.

The only thing that this accomplished was it wasted government money. If this was sent to every residence then you have to factor in just how many people got this. That's 42 cents per letter. 42 cents for two paragraphs to tell you that another letter is coming. You just spent double the money you needed to the Census department and for what? To keep the Post Office afloat?



Just think about how much of the money tossed at the hands of the United States Postal System that could have been sent to schools. Especially since budget cuts are causing massive amounts of school changes in teachers and in the level of education given to the children attending. Especially when 45 billion was tossed towards Citigroup. AIG was given 180 billion by the government in the bail out. If you look at how much the cuts on education across the board you'll really be shocked when you realize that the budget shortfall that is causing education to suffer is that same amount.

Wasn't it Obama himself who said the following:

"The fact is, Washington is a place where tax dollars are often treated like Monopoly money, bartered and traded, divvied up, among lobbyist and special interest. And it has been aplace where waste - even billions of dollars in waste is accepted as the price of doing business. Well, I don't accept business as usual. And the American people don't accept it either, especially when one of the most pressing challenges we face is reining in long-term deficits with threaten to leave our children a mountain of debt."

Seems like we're leaving our children a mountain of shit along with that debt. We're curbing education programs because they are not the priorities and foolishly spending money like this.. all in the name of potentially giving future government funding to areas seems like a catch 22. So you're going to find out which areas need that money to fix their infrastructure? With what money do you plan to do that with, exactly?



Maybe it is the mentality that we don't have to worry about balancing that check book. If we need money China will back us up and loan us the money. Even though it seems that we're not only broke, but we're reaching our potential credit limit with those places. We like to say that we're looking to prevent the future from having to pay for our mistakes but every single action we seem to be doing says otherwise.

And what's the Census for? Yeah.. it's a great way to telling corporate governance what new market demographic they should be exploiting/coercing/oppressing/favoring over the next ten years. Hell, chances are that since the political system has already collapsed as given proof in moronically sending a "heads up" letter about getting a future letter, we should just ignore the real Census letter and rebuild after all the baby boomers are all dead.