By now tens of millions of households have gotten a letter from Mr. Robert Groves, the Director of the U.S. Census Bureau, stating that the 2010 census form will be arriving in the mail soon and requesting that it be filled in and returned promptly. Raise your hand if you didn’t know that. Raise your other hand if the census letter will have any effect on how you process the census form. After reading the letter, I had three thoughts about it.
The letter made me think about the last manager I had before I retired. She was smart, well-versed in what our group did, and protected our head count. She also made decisions quickly. She let us know not to send her two pieces of email when one would do. In other words, she didn’t favor a “heads up” telling her she would need to make a simple decision sometime soon but not right now. After one run-in with her on this, I did things her way. And gradually I began to see the wisdom in it. Perhaps my ex-manager, wherever she is, should send Mr. Groves an email reminding him not to get people ready to act when there’s nothing for them to do.
The bloggers and talk radio have been all over the letter as a waste of money especially given the country’s trillion dollar deficit. By one estimate it cost more than $40 million to send the letter to its estimated 115 million recipients. The Census Bureau counters that the letter will save money because it will result in fewer visits by census workers to households who don’t return the census form in the mail. Had they asked for my advice, I would have recommended spending the money on a free stamp instead. Anyone doing a mass mailing knows that an SASE helps raise the response rate.
Finally, and this relates to issues being raised by the Tea Party movement, the letter seems symbolic of a federal government bent on taking over more of our lives and on usurping duties reserved to the states. I’m not against a census per se. The constitution requires one, and population trends need to be tracked for good reasons like apportioning congressional seats. But I’m less sanguine about Mr. Groves’s explanation of why a response is so 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 your neighbors need.” Except for federal highways, all of those programs would be better served if the tax money never went to Washington in the first place. Besides have you ever met a bureaucrat who could be pinned down when asked to define the word “fair”?
Mud Bay Blog 
We received the letter which Dad, who saves everything just in case, set aside to put in the 2010 box. Just another piece of paper among the thousands that will have to be gone thorough some day and thrown in the trash where it belongs.
Almost three weeks later I still haven’t received the letter. I suppose that means I’ll have to make some sort of special effort, such as telephoning the American consulate in Fukuoka, if I ever want to see the census form.