Randall Rasmussen | Posted: Monday, March 22, 2010 7:00 am
Like millions of Americans around the country, my U.S. Census form arrived in the mail recently. I was warned by the U.S. Census Bureau in a letter I received about a week before the census form arrived in the mail that I would be receiving the census form “about one week from now.”
Thanks for heads up on the headcount.
Actually, this year’s census form is one of the briefest questionnaires the Census Bureau has used since, well, the days when they asked, “How many people live at this address?” “Thank you.”
“Ten questions in 10 minutes” is their catchy slogan for the 2010 Census.
Perhaps they’ve learned their lessons from earlier census forms that asked all sorts of intrusive questions. Gone are the days of asking how many bathrooms are in your dwelling and are you married or living together.
The latter was the now-infamous POSSLQ question: Persons of Opposite Sex Sharing Living Quarters.
That prompted radio commentator Charles Osgood to write “My POSSLQ.”
“Come live with me and be my love,
And we will some new pleasures prove
Of golden sands and crystal brooks
With silken lines, and silver hooks.
There’s nothing that I wouldn’t do
If you would be my POSSLQ.
“You live with me, and I with you,
And you will be my POSSLQ.
I’ll be your friend and so much more;
That’s what a POSSLQ is for.
“And everything we will confess;
Yes, even to the IRS.
Some day on what we both may earn,
Perhaps we’ll file a joint return.
You’ll share my pad, my taxes, joint;
You’ll share my life — up to a point!
And that you’ll be so glad to do,
Because you’ll be my POSSLQ.”
Not since Ogden Nash has someone put such silliness to verse.
Despite the relative brevity of this year’s census form, the Libertarian Party sent out a release saying the census goes too far.
“The Libertarian Party believes that the federal government’s current census procedures are unconstitutional, unnecessary, and too expensive. We believe that the census is constitutionally limited to collecting only one piece of information about each residence: the number of persons living in it,” their statement read.
The U.S. Constitution does require a census be taken every 10 years of the number of people living in the United States. It’s important because apportionment of the seats in the House of Representatives is based on how many people live in a state.
It will be a long time, however, before South Dakota gets back the second congressional district it lost after the 1980 census found there were too few people living in the “Great Faces, Great Places” state. Believe it or not, before everyone began moving to the big cities, South Dakota once had three U.S. congressmen, until the 1930 Census dropped it to two.
Counting all the people who live in the United States isn’t getting any cheaper, either. Ten years ago, it cost $6.53 billion. This year’s Census will cost about $14 billion. The added expense is to hire thousands of Census workers to fan out across the country to count those who couldn’t or wouldn’t fill out a census form.
I’ll fill out the census and mail it in, because the last thing I want to see is someone from the federal government knocking on my door asking a bunch of fool questions
Like millions of Americans around the country, my U.S. Census form arrived in the mail recently. I was warned by the U.S. Census Bureau in a letter I received about a week before the census form arrived in the mail that I would be receiving the census form “about one week from now.”
Thanks for heads up on the headcount.
Actually, this year’s census form is one of the briefest questionnaires the Census Bureau has used since, well, the days when they asked, “How many people live at this address?” “Thank you.”
“Ten questions in 10 minutes” is their catchy slogan for the 2010 Census.
Perhaps they’ve learned their lessons from earlier census forms that asked all sorts of intrusive questions. Gone are the days of asking how many bathrooms are in your dwelling and are you married or living together.
The latter was the now-infamous POSSLQ question: Persons of Opposite Sex Sharing Living Quarters.
That prompted radio commentator Charles Osgood to write “My POSSLQ.”
“Come live with me and be my love,
And we will some new pleasures prove
Of golden sands and crystal brooks
With silken lines, and silver hooks.
There’s nothing that I wouldn’t do
If you would be my POSSLQ.
“You live with me, and I with you,
And you will be my POSSLQ.
I’ll be your friend and so much more;
That’s what a POSSLQ is for.
“And everything we will confess;
Yes, even to the IRS.
Some day on what we both may earn,
Perhaps we’ll file a joint return.
You’ll share my pad, my taxes, joint;
You’ll share my life — up to a point!
And that you’ll be so glad to do,
Because you’ll be my POSSLQ.”
Not since Ogden Nash has someone put such silliness to verse.
Despite the relative brevity of this year’s census form, the Libertarian Party sent out a release saying the census goes too far.
“The Libertarian Party believes that the federal government’s current census procedures are unconstitutional, unnecessary, and too expensive. We believe that the census is constitutionally limited to collecting only one piece of information about each residence: the number of persons living in it,” their statement read.
The U.S. Constitution does require a census be taken every 10 years of the number of people living in the United States. It’s important because apportionment of the seats in the House of Representatives is based on how many people live in a state.
It will be a long time, however, before South Dakota gets back the second congressional district it lost after the 1980 census found there were too few people living in the “Great Faces, Great Places” state. Believe it or not, before everyone began moving to the big cities, South Dakota once had three U.S. congressmen, until the 1930 Census dropped it to two.
Counting all the people who live in the United States isn’t getting any cheaper, either. Ten years ago, it cost $6.53 billion. This year’s Census will cost about $14 billion. The added expense is to hire thousands of Census workers to fan out across the country to count those who couldn’t or wouldn’t fill out a census form.
I’ll fill out the census and mail it in, because the last thing I want to see is someone from the federal government knocking on my door asking a bunch of fool questions
