Fellow New Hampshirites

[Brave Stranger]

I'm from the government, and I'm here to help you, lol, right. People can fill out the form any way they want to, but I just give my name & address. BTW for historical purposes don't ever forget that the United States government was able to round up citizens of Japanese heritage from information that they illegally took from the US census & put those folks in camps.

Most likely such a thing would be impossible these days do to diferent demographics, but anyone who thinks dealing with any government is all rainbows & big red roses is a fool.

[maxxoccupancy]

Originally Posted by Brave Stranger

I'm from the government, and I'm here to help you, lol, right. People can fill out the form any way they want to, but I just give my name & address. BTW for historical purposes don't ever forget that the United States government was able to round up citizens of Japanese heritage from information that they illegally took from the US census & put those folks in camps.

Most likely such a thing would be impossible these days do to diferent demographics, but anyone who thinks dealing with any government is all rainbows & big red roses is a fool.

*1, bud. The census is only a count of people in a state. They have no constitutional authority to ask all of these personal details about your life.

You're 100% right about people thinking that the government is all peaches and rainbows. I remember watching an episode of Care Bears as a youth and noticing how similar the show was in attitude to what we were hearing about government in the government schools.

[Mrtwigg]

Originally Posted by Brave Stranger

BTW for historical purposes don't ever forget that the United States government was able to round up citizens of Japanese heritage from information that they illegally took from the US census & put those folks in camps.

Spot on. Can't give you any more reps till I "spread some around".

[GregW]

Paranoia has all sorts of manifestations. First of all none of you people are important enough for the government to care about. You are just generic taxpayers. Second answering the census, like voting in every election, is a duty of every citizen. Just do it.

[lisa g]

Greg, do you really think the government 'cares' about you? Really? Wow.

[GotBackHome]

Lisa, I think that was sorta Greg's point. The gov't doesn't necessarily 'care' for the majority of us, so it's not like they're scrutinizing the census trying to find things to catch us on - we're just not that important in that manner.

However, for some things, the statistical data is important if you want to get your share (and by 'your' I mean the state's and the school systems') of what little is available... then they need accurate data on how many people at what age ranges are where. No, you probably don't have to fill in everything on even the short form; gender, ages and address is probably enough though they like to have as complete a picture as they can, that's at least a working amount. And as was pointed out, the census is a very valuable tool for future genealogists.

Besides, if you truly think the gov't is so disorganized that they can't do anything right/useful, then what's to worry about giving basic census data?

[googie]

NPR's "On Point" had a great program about the census the other day and I believe that everyone is getting a short form this year with a limited number questions. I really don't see what the big deal is -- despite what lots of people say, the government does provide us with services and they need to know some basic stats about the area to distribute those services. Of course, if heavily conservative parts of the country want to forgo filling out the census thereby lessening the number of Congressional seats that go to the GOP, that's okay with me.