I received my 2010 Census form last week. I was lucky, I got the short form. But there are so many things about the 2010 Census that bothers me... is the census even needed anymore?
A Better Life
According to the
flood of TV and radio commercials, the census is needed to help improve our way of life.
One of the examples claims that the census ensures that
schools have enough teachers. Huh? The census is conducted every 10 years. Kids who were born in 2001 are already 9 years old and have been in school for over 4 years.
The census doesn't tell schools how many students they will have. Instead, the number of students is known because households pay taxes to their school districts (number of potential families), hospitals track birth records (how many new students), real-estate sales track the number of incoming and outgoing households, and most importantly: school districts know that if they have
x students this year, then they will likely have
x students next year. There is always a little fluctuation, but it isn't in the hundreds of students between years.
The census may tell congress how to allocate funds for schools, but it isn't the only method. Congress knows where the money should be spent because they get annual numbers from the individual states. Using the census to identify teacher shortages? That sounds bogus to me.
Taking the High Road
Another commercial says that the census will help cities determine which roads to fix.
Again: the census is taken every 10 years. In less than 10 years, unfixed potholes can consume cars. And city planners already know where the traffic problems are. For example, when my city installed a traffic light for my neighborhood, they didn't wait 10 years. Instead, the city measured the traffic (those rubber hoses that go across the street). They looked at the traffic volume and installed a light -- less than two years. Saying that the census helps cities fix roads is bogus.
Unequal
The census is required by law. However, laws are supposed to be applied equally. With the census, most people get the short form but a few get the long form. You are legally required to complete whatever form you receive.
While I can certainly understand and agree with the use of a statistical sample for more detailed information, this isn't applying the law equally. If it were equal, then everyone would receive the same form.
I also have to wonder why my form asked for (1) my name, (2) my age, and (3)
am I Hispanic? Is there some particular reason why Hispanics are called out in the census and other ethnic backgrounds are not?
Almost Private
The 2010 Census says that the information provided "
is protected by law". But what does that really mean?
If you assumed that the information will be kept private, then you are grossly mistaken. The census will likely release a summary of names and potentially identifiable metrics within a year. (If your parents gave you a unique name, then you have no privacy.) The full details of the information provided today will become
public record in 72 years.
All In The Family
So ignoring all of the issues about inequality, bogus claims of relevancy, and untrue privacy claims... what does the census provide?
If you are into genealogy then the census is a goldmine. It is one of the few sets of records that document families in the United States. Today, there are many records that track families, but few are official, government, public records. And even fewer are all located in one convenient location.
However, there are some serious limitations. For example, many marriages and cohabitation relationships
last less than 10 years. Those will be completely missed by the census. Better resources for tracking people are available than any snapshot that the census provides. Today there are so many different documents tracking people that data mining the records is much more valuable than the census records.
As a valuable resource, I have my serious doubts about today's census. I mean, seriously, what value does it provide? As I
previously mentioned, the census is slow, expensive, and inaccurate. While it was a great idea 100 years ago, today it just seems to be a
waste of taxpayer money.
