Census Archive

It’s all over the place lately – the television ads, the billboards, the radio ads…it’s the 2010 US Census. That’s right – it seems you can’t consume any media without hearing, “We can’t move forward until you mail it back…2010 census.” All I can think when I hear the jingle is, “how much are we spending on this and how can we do it cheaper and more efficiently?” Well, tonight I learned that we will spend $15 BILLION on the census over the period from 2001-2013. I’m not into politics but I am into business and am sure we could create a much more efficient data collection system and then use that money so much more wisely – just imagine if we used that money for public transit or education!

I do understand that we need to figure out how many people are inside the borders of the U.S. and where the people are located so monies are properly allocated. I finally received my 2010 census form on Tuesday.

I am splitting this post into two areas: general census questions and a “wtf technology” section. First up…general questions:

• You mean the U.S. government can’t figure out how many people are in each household by using tax forms?
• Apparently some people received a postcard and then the form – I only received the form
• The form asks for my date of birth AND for my age – you mean to tell me that our government systems can’t figure out that if I put 12/1/1950 for my dob that my age is x? Hell, my coding skills are average and I could work that up in a few hours max
• Instead of paying census workers to go from home to home, why not require anyone getting government assistance (except in certain circumstances) to work x hours on the census?
• We have a president who used Twitter once – and we are mailing hundreds of millions of forms around the country? We have a postal service that says they have no money and we are injecting all these documents into the system?

Now on to the technology side and my suggestions on fixing the census system.  Why in 2010 are we sending forms via the mail back and forth? The form is amazingly simple – for those outside the U.S., here’s what they ask for each person inside the house:
Continue reading “Things I Don’t Understand: The 2010 US Census” »