This guy seems pretty pissed off about the Census.
I ask you, TheScrabbled: is he justified in his skepticism, or is this more Tea-Baggery? I mean, my understanding is that participation in the Census is optional, but Census data is used to determine federal and state funding, etc. Can you help me out?
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I couldn’t get past the first minute or two, too much like Andy Rooney.
Apparently the thing is required
The census is also used to determine the number of representatives a state gets.
The dude definitely has a bit of a conspiracy theory nut air to him (less teabagger, more 9/11 truther). And he playing with half-truths here as well: it’s not the census that asks about how many cars and TVs we own, it’s the ACS (long form) which we are not required to fill out. He doesn’t indicate that he’s talking about this in any way other than changing the background behind him.
Regardless, he raises some very valid questions. In particular, I’m curious about how my data will be stored and what protective measures will be taken to prevent data theft. In addition, I’m concerned about other departments of the US Government’s ability to subpoena census info. And why hasn’t the Census Bureau made information on the long form more prevalent?
After looking at the questions Matt just posted, I’m definitely going to fill it out, thought I may leave the race stuff and phone number blank.
John said:
After looking at the questions Matt just posted, I’m definitely going to fill it out, thought I may leave the race stuff and phone number blank.
I don’t see this as a problem; I understand one’s desire to submit data anonymously. Truth be told, I’d gladly give honest replies to everything if I were sure there was no way it’d be linked to me as an individual.
I thought I had read last night someone in the video comments say there’s a 50 year release period, so information you submit isn’t accessible until 50 years after it’s taken. While I have not found (or looked for) any evidence to support this, it is clear to me that reading the comments to the video is fucking hilarious.
O.K. I know it’s my go-to topic on most socio-cultural subjects, but……this is another example of narcissism. This guy…he’s not that interesting or important. And you know what? Neither are any of us. The idea that any of this is some sort of insidious way to get our information out there (you know, sort of like driver’s licenses, taxes, credit cards, etc.) is just total wingnut loonery.
The thing is that so much of this revolves around the racial make up questions. And yet a douche like this guy is going to be the first one to scream yet another conspiracy theory or get pissed off when he and his Wonder Bread ilk don’t fill out the information and the census shows there are more hispanic or african american or asian people in the US than good ole white people like himself.
John said:After looking at the questions Matt just posted, I’m definitely going to fill it out, thought I may leave the race stuff and phone number blank.
From what I read on their site, you have to fill out the entire census form (the short 10 question one). If you don’t they will just send a replacement form and if that’s not submitted they will send out a census person to come and interview you. Of course if you’re not at home when they come then I guess you’d get away with it.
It’s 72 years before data is publicly released. I remember hearing a radio interview with a guy who wrote a book about the census, and a large part of it was the funny names people gave to the census workers, but this was from right after the turn of the last century.
Kev, I agree that a lot of what this guy is saying is narcisism, but there’s still an element of data security that even the most humble person should be afraid of: data and identity theft. I haven’t seen the complete long form, but it sounds like everything that’s being asked could potentially be enough info to let someone financially ruin you.
And while I don’t think a CIA gulag is all that likely, our national security agencies haven’t been behaving in a way that’d make me all that happy about their having access to my data.
But the short form seems innocuous. The only reason I don’t want to fill out my phone is cause my only phone is a cell and I don’t want them calling it and I don’t want to fill out the race portion because it just seems to me like something the government shouldn’t be counting.
I’m going to put human for race.
Does the 72 come from the average human age expectancy?
John said:
I don’t want to fill out the race portion because it just seems to me like something the government shouldn’t be counting.
But then how will we know when there’s truly a minority majority? Come on, man! It’s likely to happen in our lifetime. Let’s make sure the report is legit!
Sammy said:John said:
I don’t want to fill out the race portion because it just seems to me like something the government shouldn’t be counting.
But then how will we know when there’s truly a minority majority? Come on, man! It’s likely to happen in our lifetime. Let’s make sure the report is legit!
Yeah, I would think John of all people would be in favor of this. I am, if only because it does and will piss off stodgy old white dude.
This is a good point. It’d certainly be fun to watch. But I’m more in favor of the “lets’ just breed until we’re all one color” approach to race. Enumerating it just doesn’t seem ethical.
John said:But I’m more in favor of the “lets’ just breed until we’re all one color” approach to race.
Says the guy who married a pure white European girl practically right off the boat from the Motherland.
Ok, the “everyone else just breed till you’re all one color” approach.
Kevin said:John said:But I’m more in favor of the “lets’ just breed until we’re all one color” approach to race.
Says the guy who married a pure white European girl practically right off the boat from the Motherland.
haha, that won’t work for me either. mine IS right off the boat.
John said:Ok, the “everyone else just breed till you’re all one color” approach.
Yeah, but thanks to OkCupid we can track the likelihood of this to happen.
Oh, and you and Mandy are closet White Supremacists.
I really think the expansion of questions posed by the Census, and that ACS form, is really more a function of ability to tally data rather than encroaching government control or overreaching authority. I mean, when the original censuses were taken, people had to physically travel to remote farms and count people by hand, then write it down by hand, then tally every person they were able to find by hand. That they only asked maybe 12 to 20 questions seems a matter of necessity; there was a shit ton of work to do already.
Clearly times have changed quite significantly, with developed infrastructure for census takers that actually have to travel, people living (mostly?) in grids, mail-in campaigns, and computer processors with almost-infinite computational capacity. If you’ve got the ability to, why not try to crunch as much information about your COUNTRY as possible?
I think the problem this guy in the video has is one of ego; everyone’s being asked the same amount of questions, and is required to give the same amount of basic information. The government isn’t coming after him, just as it’s not coming after me or you (well, maybe Hutch). There simply exists the capacity to be more thorough than ever before, to be able to produce data that is more representative than ever before, in order to understand perhaps better than ever before the makeup of our country, its strengths and weaknesses, and how to apportion the services, aid, and representatives the most fairly.
Yes. What Sammy said. Especially the part about John being a white supremacist.