Saturday, March 13, 2010

Costly Census

It’s like they spend money just because they can.  Wait, it’s not “like” that.  That’s what it is. 

This week West Benders received a notification letter from the U.S. Department of Commerce. The letter read: “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 promptly. Your response is important.”

   The letter is signed by Robert M. Groves, director of the U.S. Census Bureau.

   U.S. Census Bureau paid for the pre-sorted, firstclass mail postage and fees. The bulk-mailing supervisor at the West Bend Post Office said the cost was about 35 cents per letter. Regular postage is 44 cents.

   Don Zimmer is the local census office manager in Oshkosh. He said the Census Bureau mailed 123 million letters to households nationwide. At 35 cents postage, that’s about $43 million. The population in West Bend is 30,400.

   “We used global positioning systems to get local addresses and we sent out the form letter,” said Zimmer. “So as many residence we could identify that were occupied, those were the letters that went to people. Again they weren’t addressed to people but to housing units.”

   State Sen. Glenn Grothman of West Bend said this one more example of wasteful spending.

   “This just shows, one more time, how completely oblivious too many government officials are to spending other people’s money,” he said. “I would guess the advance letter will result in zero more people filling out their form.”

(12) Comments
Posted by Owen at 1007 hrs
Politics + Politics - General + Politics - Wisconsin

  1. “We used global positioning systems to get local addresses and we sent out the form letter,” said Zimmer.

    How exactly does that work? Does he know what GPS is?

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 13, 2010 at 1042 hrs


  2. I wondered the same thing.  Do the census folks not have access to the white pages?  Or the internet?

    Posted by Owen on March 13, 2010 at 1047 hrs


  3. “how completely oblivious too many government officials are to spending other people’s money”

    There’s a flaw here. The government is OUR government. THey’re not spending “other peopel’s money” but OUR representatives spending OUR collective money.

    If we don’t like it, then do something about it. Vote in otehr representatives. Or, support statistical sampling.

    “I would guess the advance letter will result in zero more people filling out their form.”

    That’s such an easy statement for a politician critical of any spending to make. It is unprovable and unfalsifiable at the same time, and therefore is allowed to be said without rebuttal. Typical political-speak.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 13, 2010 at 1147 hrs


  4. That’s a nice infusion of capital into the US Postal Service. What do you got against mail carriers? Cry me a river, and put me down as unimpressed by your rebirth as a deficit hawk.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 13, 2010 at 1201 hrs


  5. There’s a flaw here. The government is OUR government. THey’re not spending “other peopel’s money” but OUR representatives spending OUR collective money.

    If we don’t like it, then do something about it. Vote in otehr representatives. Or, support statistical sampling.

    Interesting that you should say this about the particular device that makes your proposal impossible. The census is the primary factor in redistricting done by Congress. Through redistricting they create political districts that will do nothing but elect the same person in election after election without some major scandal…

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 13, 2010 at 1236 hrs


  6. NO! The Government is no longer operating at the discretion of the people. We are their serfs and will do as we are told to do. How hard it that to figure out? You don’t believe me? What have we done to stop their take over? Nothing. What “will” we do to stop this? NOTHING. So shut up and do as they tell you to do. You think your voting them out really matters?

    You poor foolish sheep, as long as you have idiots stupid enough to put obama into office you’re going to have people who have no problem with this Government taking more and more of your liberties. If you have no intention of fighting to keep your rights you have no right to them.
    Cowards, they’re shitting on you and you don’t even realize it.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 13, 2010 at 1527 hrs


  7. Remember…the government has no right to any information other than how many people live at your address.  Not your name, not your income, not your race.

    Exercise your 4th and 5th amendment rights.

    Posted by Deekaman on March 13, 2010 at 2259 hrs


  8. so, do all of you anti-census people support the use of statistical sampling instead?

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 13, 2010 at 2342 hrs


  9. rush, the post is about wasteful spending sending a letter announcing that another letter would be sent.

    I’ve received two of these letters so far.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 14, 2010 at 0208 hrs


  10. Government efficiency at its finest.  The math of $43MM cost of these letters for 300 MM people comes to about 14 cents per person.  We have 4 people in our household so it cost our family 57 cents to receive a 35 cent letter telling us that we will be getting the real form in a week or so.

    And we want this group of people making decisions for us on health care and what type of insurance we need?  Really?

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 14, 2010 at 1148 hrs


  11. No neomom,

    It cost the members of your household $0.0875 per person, it cost my household $0.35. You have to figure the cost per housing unit first and then divide it into each individual. I had to pay for the whole letter to get to me, each member of your family only had to pay for a quarter of it.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 14, 2010 at 1937 hrs


  12. So, what questions are you answering, and which ones aren’t you answering?

    For me, I answered 1,2,3,5,6, the Age and Year of 7, and that’s it.  The rest are blank, and not the business of my government for the purposes of representation, services, or roads.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 15, 2010 at 1530 hrs


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