Friday, March 12, 2010

Census

Today in the mail I received a letter from the Census Bureau.

It says: "Dear Resident: About one week from now, you will receive a 2010 Census form in the mail."

Leave it to the the government to send a letter telling us it is going to send another letter. Why do things efficiently when being inefficient "creates more jobs" and "spreads the work?"

Think of the:
- loggers who must cut down a bunch of trees to make all these papers
- paper manufacturers
- printers
- mailmen (I mean postal professionals, of course)
- garbage collectors or recyclers who must get rid of this junk mail
- computer programmers who make data-collection software
- census workers who type in the data
- census workers who come knock on your door when you don't fill out the form.

I hereby declare that the census is quite a brilliant idea.

5 comments:

  1. Are you going to surrender your personal information to the govt? My plan is to just write, "Two people live here," and perhaps include a copy of the constitution. If the census folks don't like my reply and send an underemployed representative to my abode, I will most likely talk to them through the door, as too much info can be gleaned by letting him/her in.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Come on Mark, be a man. Are you free or a slave? As a free man the constitution has no authority over you.

    Here's what you should do. Grab a lighter (http://snipr.com/uubob), your census form, and a bullhorn. Walk out to your front yard and announce, "I am a free man. I will not be counted!" Then set the census form on fire, hold it above your head and scream "Freedom from tyranny!"

    To draw attention to your protest you may want to make a huge 8 to 12 foot sign that says "No Treason" and underneath that put the day & time of your census burning rally. Hang the sign from the roof off the front of your house a few days prior.

    To start off the rally you should walk out to your front yard with a big american flag. Plant the flag in the ground. Take the lighter in your hand and light the flag. Let the flag burn behind you as a backdrop to your rally speech.

    ReplyDelete
  3. A few days before this blog post I received the same letter. Today I received a letter from the city "requesting your participation in completing the 2010 Census. . . ."

    Farmington is a pretty small city, but I'm sure the majority of municipalities in the country are sending out similar letters.

    You are right, the census is brilliant. It alone should be able to end the current depression.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Baby steps Slippery Pencil... baby steps.

    I am free and no one owns me more than I allow. But I am easing into my resistance. I can't go from zero to 100. My wife is already concerned, "Are you going to stop paying taxes? You better not go to jail!!!"

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hey Mark,

    The census worker stopped by my house as I detailed in a blog entry above. Did they stop by yours and if so what transpired?

    ReplyDelete