Hey, US Government?

[agilebrit]

I get that it's Very Very Important that I fill the census thing out and send it back to you.

In fact, I did it the day the thing arrived in the mail.

However, I'm quite miffed that you're spending my hard-earned tax dollars that could be better spent elsewhere to send me not ONE, but TWO letters letting me know, first of all, that the cursed

Comments

[zilly14]

I totally agree. When I got the first letter, I was like "oh, the census already?" and was confused why they'd send a letter a week early telling me to fill out the census (when the census form already says to fill it out...) Apparently the idea behind it is that it's cheaper to send multiple letters than to have a census taker come to your door? That may be the case, but getting JUST the census would've been enough for me. I would've gotten the importance with just that. And then I get that postcard today! Totally bad approach.

I was pissed when they spent $2.5 million for that dumb Super Bowl ad.

The way to get people to fill out the census is to reinforce the fact that it affects how much money the federal gov't gives to your community. Maybe do a pamphlet with the census that explains it, I don't know (I'm not into advertising/marketing) but the way they're doing it is awful. People who weren't going to fill it out probably still won't. Stupid ads won't convince them. Multiple letters? Hah. They'll probably be MORE likely to throw it away!

After working for the government for nearly 3 years, I have come to realize - the people making the rules, the laws, the ads, everything... they don't know what it's like on the ground actually doing the stuff, and what works and what doesn't. If I was running the VBA, for example, there would be changes that would make SENSE for veterans and SENSE for employees. But it's the government, and they don't have SENSE!

Sorry kinda on a tangent there... lol.

[agilebrit]

Seriously, just give me the 2.5mil and I'll go door-to-door and grab people by the scruff of the neck and make them fill it out.

And government wonks have no idea what it's like at the pointy end of the stick or how real people in the real world think. What happened to them? I'm sure they used to be real people, once upon a time...