The Census

Have you filled yours out? I tore mine up and threw it away. I did this for a few reasons. First of all, I was greatly offended that the federal government is using tax money to pay for ads on TV promoting it. Second, it asks a lot of invasive questions. Third, they already have all of that information anyway.

I can’t begin to tell you how angry I was when I saw a Census ad play during the super bowl. To begin with, it wasn’t even clever, like the “Green Police” commercial Audi did. Second, if they didn’t twist the arm of the network to get it aired for free, it cost us a lot of money. After that, they keep playing them, like I didn’t notice the “you’ll get your census soon” notification in the mail. Well…it’s quite possible many people missed that notice seeing how the postal service seems to lose mail all the time. But really? They are going to spend tax money on tv commercials promoting a government program? That’s wrong.

Now, if you received yours, did you look at the questions? How many questions do they need to determine just what type of Hispanic someone is? For me, there is just “white”. Not “white of eastern European descent”, or “white of western European descent”, or “white of whatever other place white people come from descent”. That just didn’t sit right with me. It was at this point that I tore it up and threw it out. Oh, I also threw it out because it was addressed to “resident”. My name isn’t “resident”. If I get mail addressed to “resident” it is considered junk mail and goes right in the trash.

One big question in my mind is “don’t they already have all this information?” If you fill out your tax forms, all that info, and more, is on there. Can’t the IRS and the census people hook up and swap info? If you don’t fill out your tax forms, all that info is in other places, like your employer, schools, libraries, the banks, all over the place. If the government can raid my bank account, they can take the time to count me and my kids in a much smarter and more efficient way than sending a long form (which is not very “green”, I might add), which I will throw away (screw you recycling). Then, they are going to send a person (one of those “jobs” that obama has claimed to create) to my house to pester me. My wife was a little upset that I threw out the census form. Not because she thought that it was our civic duty to fill out, but because now some government schlub is going to come to our house. They will make 3 attempts to contact you in person. If you are like me, and don’t answer the door for government people, then they will actually go to your neighbor’s house and bother them to try and get info from them about you. If that fails, then they just give up. They threaten you with a fine of some sort, but whatever, they can go pee up a tree.

I’m tired of these commercials on tv and the radio about “stand up and be counted”, and “our community deserves our fair share”. I call B.S. on that. I don’t want to be counted, and that money that is “our fair share” is money that was stolen from other people to begin with. The idea that it is fair in any way is just ludicrous. I don’t want that money. Leave me alone. I can decide how to spend my money better than some government hack can.