To expand on my Facebook status
To expand on my Facebook status:
When I got the American Community Survey last week, I Googled it to find out what the heck it was. I found out that it was what used to be known as the "US Census Long Form." It used to be that a random subset of the population was asked to answer more in-depth questions during the Census. Now they're sending out these same forms at random all the time, seperate from the normal "short form" of the census everyone gets. The theory is that they'll have more timely information this way.
Google ALSO showed me that there are a number of groups of people who are really, really upset about this as a horrific government invasion of privacy. (Why they're so upset about this NOW when the Census Bureau has had a "long form" since 1940 is unclear. The only thing that's changed is that now they're sending them out more often.)
Here's Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) with her usual plays-fast-and-loose-with-the-truth take, on Sean Hannity. All italics are quotes and nothing is cut from between quotes -- I just separated them to make comments of my own.
HANNITY: Give us some of the example of the intrusive questions. We’ve gone over this some time ago and some of the questions that you don’t like.
BACHMANN: Well, they ask you your phone number.
(Me: Yup. However, since one of the big complaints about the ACS is that the Census Bureau apparently calls you to remind you to fill it if they don't get it back in a reasonable period of time -- it appears the government knows your phone number already.)
They want to know how many times you’ve given live birth.
(Me: Not true. They do want to know if you've given birth in the last 12 months.)
How many times you’ve been married.
(Me: True. The categories are never married, once, twice, and 3 or more times.)
How many bathrooms are in your home.
(Me: Not true. They want to know how many bedrooms there are, and how many rooms total, explicitly EXCLUDING bathrooms.)
They want to know what time you leave your house in the morning to go to work. The hour and the minute. What time you come back from work. The hour and the minute.
(Me: The former is true, the latter is not. They ask what time you usually leave for work, along with length of commute. Nothing about the drive home. According to the instructions, they want to know so they have some idea of what areas people are running into traffic or otherwise having trouble getting to work, so they know where transportation improvements need to be made.)
Your age, your race, your sex.
(Me: True, but really... is my age, race, and sex highly intrusive confidential information? Anyone who looks at me can get my race, my sex, and a decent guess at my age.)
And not only just for you, but for every person that lives in your house. Twenty-eight pages.
(Me: True. But you only have to fill out all 28 pages if you have 5 or more people in your house. Single folks like me fill out quite a bit less.)
Sean, you know the one question they don’t ask? They don’t ask, “are you an American citizen?” They don’t ask if you’re here on a visa or when it expires. We have no real idea how many illegal aliens are in our country. But wouldn’t you think, here they are asking every personal question about our lives, they could at least ask if we’re an American citizen? They don’t bother to ask for that.
(Me: Not true. Of course they ask if you're a citizen, as well as year you were naturalized (if you're naturalized) and what year you came to the US (if you weren't born here.) It's true they don't ask for any more details beyond that, e.g. about visas. If you're not a citizen, you just put that and the year you came, end of story. But of course, counting illegal immigrants isn't the point of the ACS and would in fact be counterproductive.)
That’s why I think people need to read this census for themselves.
(Me: Apparently she thinks everyone needs to read it for themselves except her.)
I found another article which reacted to the questions about whether people in the house are disabled with "So much for keeping government out of the bedroom." which made me go "Huh?" These things are connected in the author's mind... how exactly? Never mind. Not sure I want to know.
When I got the American Community Survey last week, I Googled it to find out what the heck it was. I found out that it was what used to be known as the "US Census Long Form." It used to be that a random subset of the population was asked to answer more in-depth questions during the Census. Now they're sending out these same forms at random all the time, seperate from the normal "short form" of the census everyone gets. The theory is that they'll have more timely information this way.
Google ALSO showed me that there are a number of groups of people who are really, really upset about this as a horrific government invasion of privacy. (Why they're so upset about this NOW when the Census Bureau has had a "long form" since 1940 is unclear. The only thing that's changed is that now they're sending them out more often.)
Here's Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) with her usual plays-fast-and-loose-with-the-truth take, on Sean Hannity. All italics are quotes and nothing is cut from between quotes -- I just separated them to make comments of my own.
HANNITY: Give us some of the example of the intrusive questions. We’ve gone over this some time ago and some of the questions that you don’t like.
BACHMANN: Well, they ask you your phone number.
(Me: Yup. However, since one of the big complaints about the ACS is that the Census Bureau apparently calls you to remind you to fill it if they don't get it back in a reasonable period of time -- it appears the government knows your phone number already.)
They want to know how many times you’ve given live birth.
(Me: Not true. They do want to know if you've given birth in the last 12 months.)
How many times you’ve been married.
(Me: True. The categories are never married, once, twice, and 3 or more times.)
How many bathrooms are in your home.
(Me: Not true. They want to know how many bedrooms there are, and how many rooms total, explicitly EXCLUDING bathrooms.)
They want to know what time you leave your house in the morning to go to work. The hour and the minute. What time you come back from work. The hour and the minute.
(Me: The former is true, the latter is not. They ask what time you usually leave for work, along with length of commute. Nothing about the drive home. According to the instructions, they want to know so they have some idea of what areas people are running into traffic or otherwise having trouble getting to work, so they know where transportation improvements need to be made.)
Your age, your race, your sex.
(Me: True, but really... is my age, race, and sex highly intrusive confidential information? Anyone who looks at me can get my race, my sex, and a decent guess at my age.)
And not only just for you, but for every person that lives in your house. Twenty-eight pages.
(Me: True. But you only have to fill out all 28 pages if you have 5 or more people in your house. Single folks like me fill out quite a bit less.)
Sean, you know the one question they don’t ask? They don’t ask, “are you an American citizen?” They don’t ask if you’re here on a visa or when it expires. We have no real idea how many illegal aliens are in our country. But wouldn’t you think, here they are asking every personal question about our lives, they could at least ask if we’re an American citizen? They don’t bother to ask for that.
(Me: Not true. Of course they ask if you're a citizen, as well as year you were naturalized (if you're naturalized) and what year you came to the US (if you weren't born here.) It's true they don't ask for any more details beyond that, e.g. about visas. If you're not a citizen, you just put that and the year you came, end of story. But of course, counting illegal immigrants isn't the point of the ACS and would in fact be counterproductive.)
That’s why I think people need to read this census for themselves.
(Me: Apparently she thinks everyone needs to read it for themselves except her.)
I found another article which reacted to the questions about whether people in the house are disabled with "So much for keeping government out of the bedroom." which made me go "Huh?" These things are connected in the author's mind... how exactly? Never mind. Not sure I want to know.