Word: censuses
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Though the 2010 census is unlikely to reflect major changes in the socioeconomic and ethnic makeup of Cambridge over the past ten years, community leaders say they hope that “hidden” groups—specifically same-sex couples and the Portuguese-speaking population—will be more accurately represented in this year’s count...
...hundred twenty years later, lawmakers are so unpopular, it's a wonder people fight over the means of getting more of them - except that nowadays about $400 billion per year in federal aid follows the Census numbers, for everything from jobs to bridges to schools, so this really matters. (Watch an interview with Census Director Robert Groves...
...course, there would be more money to spread around if it didn't cost so much to count us in the first place: about $15 billion, according to some estimates. That includes $338 million for ads in 28 languages, a Census-sponsored NASCAR entry, hiring Marie Osmond to do outreach on QVC, $2.5 million for a Super Bowl ad and spots on Spanish radio and soap operas and Dora the Explorer. The ads are meant to boost the response rate, since any household that doesn't mail back its form gets visited by a Census worker, another pricey line item...
...would anyone not want to be counted? Illegal immigrants fear exposure, despite laws forbidding any court or agency from seeing the information; indiscreet Census workers can be fined up to $250,000. Minnesota Representative Michele Bachmann warned that during World War II, Census data was shared with the FBI "at the request of President Roosevelt, and that's how the Japanese were rounded up ... I'm not saying that that's what the Administration is planning to do," she said, but nonetheless she vowed that she'll state how many people are in her household and nothing more. Since participation...
Bachmann may think the Census is too intrusive; I just wish it were more so. As long as we're spending all this money to reach so many people, imagine what we could find out. Which do you favor, Leno or Letterman? Smooth or chunky? Faith or works? Liberty or equality? As it is, we had little to argue over in my house. This year's is one of the shortest forms in history, and it is aggressively uninteresting; our dry cleaners demand more information before they'll do home delivery. The trickiest part for us was to name what...