New Additional Census...a threat?
By estherlou
@estherlou (5015)
United States
March 17, 2010 10:10am CST
There will be an additional census sent to a sample of 3 million homes in the US by the Census Bureau. It will be 11 pages long and ask extensive questions. Here is an example of some of them...
"The second section surveys housing, asking whether the household is a mobile home, a one-family detached home, a one-family home attached to one or more houses, an apartment or a boat, RV or van.
Then the ACS asks what year the building was built, when "Person No. 1" in the housing section moved into the home; the size of land the home is on; what agricultural products were sold from the property in the last 12 months; whether the property was used as a business; how many separate rooms are in the house; whether the house has hot and cold running water; whether the house has a flush toilet, a shower or bathtub, a sink with a faucet, a stove or range, a refrigerator and a telephone; how many cars, vans and trucks are kept at the property; and what fuel is most used at the property – gas, electricity, fuel oil or kerosene, coal or coke, wood, solar energy, or "other."
The ACS wants to know if Person No. 1 in the household is a citizen, if the person was born in the U.S. or when the person came to the U.S.; whether the person had attended college in the last three years and what is the highest level of education the person has completed; the person's ancestry or ethnic origin; whether the person speaks a language other than English at home, and if yes, what language; whether the person lived in this housing unit or an apartment a year ago; whether the person is covered by health insurance, and if yes, by what type of health insurance.
Next, Person No. 1 must answer if he/she is deaf or has difficulty hearing; if the person is blind or has serious difficulty seeing even when wearing glasses; if the person has difficulty concentrating, remembering or making decisions because of a physical, mental or emotional condition; whether the person has serious difficulty walking or climbing stairs; whether the person has difficulty bathing or dressing; whether the person has difficulty doing errands alone such as visiting a doctor's office or shopping because of a physical, mental, or emotional condition; what is the person's marital status; whether the person has given birth to any children in the past 12 months; whether the person has any grandchildren under the age of 18 in the house or apartment; whether the person has ever served on active duty in the U.S. armed forces; whether the person has a VA service-connected disability rating, and if yes, what percentage is the VA disability rating.
The ACS also asks whether Person No. 1 worked last week for pay; at what address, town, city and country did the person work last week; how did the person get to work and if by car, bus, railroad, taxi, motorcycle, bicycle or on foot; whether the person, if unemployed, has been actively looking for work in the past four weeks; whether the person, if unemployed, was available to start work if offered a job or recalled to work in the past week; and how many weeks the person worked in the past year and how many hours per week.
Finally, Person No. 1 must disclose whether his or her most recent work was for a private for-profit company, a private not-for-profit, a local government, a state government or the federal government, or whether the person was self employed in their own incorporated or not-incorporated business, or whether the person worked without pay in a family business or on the family farm; the name of the employer; the type of business; whether the business was manufacturing, wholesale trade, retail trade; or other; the exact job description of the person and his or her most important duties; his or her income over the past 12 months and the amount of that income that came from wages, salary, commission, bonuses or tips; whether the person received any Social Security or Railroad Retirement benefits, or any other type of public assistance in the past 12 months; and the person's entire income over the past 12 months, both from employment or public welfare sources."
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.printable&pageId=128409
Now, if you don't object to telling all of your personal or monetary information, I really object to answering questions about whether or not I have a disability or whether or not I can bathe myself...what in the world do they want these types of questions for? This is really invasion of privacy! What do you think?
1 person likes this
14 responses
@zoey7879 (3092)
• United States
17 Mar 10
This isn't new. They did this during the last census... They ask the questions for basic statistics.. but I think that they are far too personal at some points. I can remember at the last census pretending not to speak English while my neighbor in the next apartment just laughed at the poor census taker. But my issue is this...
Most of this information could be gathered from the various sources and organizations that they are just talking about anyway, except for perhaps the medical bit.
3 people like this
@MsTickle (25180)
• Australia
24 Mar 10
In Australia it can't be gathered from other sources- I'm guessing it's the same in your country too. It's called the privacy act and government agencies do not share information. They cannot collect the info from other sources or share it with other sources. They are looking only for numbers not trying to catch people out.
@writersedge (22563)
• United States
17 Mar 10
My Mother got the extended version one year and it was the year she didn't send the short one back. They came to the door and asked why she hadn't sent it back. She had been in the hospital with cancer (had the bills to prove it) and when she got home, she was so sick that she hadn't even gone through all the mail yet (and she had the pile of mail to prove it). So they asked her all the extended questions. I could tell that they seemed very sad that my Mother didn't have all the help she needed. I had to leave my Mom to go to work. I could have used help to bath her since she outweighted me by 60 to 80 lbs until she withered away.
As we age, the baby-boomers are going to need more and more at-home care. More and more people will become disabled. My area, all the young people are leaving because there are no jobs. There isn't enough at home care and the waiting lists for nursing homes are getting longer and longer. They cut our nursing homes because there wasn't enough money a few years ago. They cut funded assisted living, only the AL for the rich is still going. They cut visiting nurses. I'd like to see all this restored. If my Mother were still alive, I couldn't keep caring for her, and I would have no where to turn. Do you think these idiot politicians know this? If they have a problem, they have money to hire private help. Do you have any idea how many people are suffering right now? Neither do I. The people in Washington D. C. certainly don't. But they can't figure it out without extended forms. I'm surprised they don't send them to everyone.
@MsTickle (25180)
• Australia
24 Mar 10
No-one will ever know the hardships being suffered by such people as you and your Mum because people think that that information is too private and none of the government's business.
How can the gov't plan to provide the resources needed if no-one fills out the census with the info they ask for???
1 person likes this
@writersedge (22563)
• United States
24 Mar 10
Yes, that's my concern, too.
Not everyone refuses to answer those questions. When I took a poll of people who were ill and had been in the military or were married to someone in the military, many people were determined to tell someone,anyone about the effects of the Gulf War Syndrome, Viet Nam Agent Orange, etc. That was also government sponsored and it was my job to do it. Everything was confidential, but let me tell you, the stuff you hear is the tip of the iceberg to what you don't hear. I'm a pretty tough cookie, but I had to go somewhere and cry after one person's story. Some people have very little endurance and are so ill, that they can only talk a few minutes at a time and had to be gone back to 4 or 5 times, once a week until they could complete it. I was told to give people like that the option of aborting the form and they said that each one of them represents hundreds or even thousands like them and if they "wimp out," all those people will not be spoken for. You could hear them "fading fast" at the other end of the phone. Congress had bought that poll before they were goiing to pass a budget to help Veterans and Veterans families with medical coverage. It was our job to get that done so that Congress and the President could sign a budget for them. They were able to get increases due to the selfless acts of many people, esp. the ones who would never live long enough to see the budget passed and reap the rewards.
Getting back to my MOM:So if a regular person is Middle Class and has cancer, I hope they figure out that they need help, but can't afford it. So how much a person makes and medical coverage may not seem like it's anyone's business, but our own, but . . ..
@desertdarlene (8910)
• United States
17 Mar 10
I know they've given out a lot of long forms in the past and this seems to be a really small amount this time. I wouldn't want to be the census worker that has to follow up on those forms.
2 people like this
@whiteheather39 (24403)
• United States
17 Mar 10
I mailed my completed Census to day and it was very simple just one page and nothing personal except my phone number was asked. I have not heard anything about another Census form to be completed.
2 people like this
@only1fushia (96)
• United States
17 Mar 10
we had to fill those type of papers out the time before last. back then we didn't have much to report and no disabilities. But if we had gotten this type of paper work, I don't think I would be happy to fill out these type of questions. I feel it really is an invasion of privacy.
I thought the census was started so they could do a head count on how many live in this country. NOT to get into details about how we live.
2 people like this
@Lakota12 (42600)
• United States
17 Mar 10
HEck ya it is.
adn if I get one I am not answering it.
For was on tv here awhile back that they tried to get ahold of these people and got no call back I do think this goes way beyound any cences that tehy need to know .
Cencus is for a head count so the states can get more money from government on projects.
But I dont think they need to know all this other places like SS know all about us!
@MsTickle (25180)
• Australia
24 Mar 10
I'm presuming that the American Bureau of statistics is similar to the Australian, for which I have worked.
Let me tell you first. The Bureau of statistics collects.....guess??? STATISTICS!! Who would have thought it.
Your name is recorded and crossed off a list, probably an electoral role. That is the first page dealt with...it has been separated from the rest of the census. These pages of info no longer carry your name. The pages are fed into a machine and the marks are counted and this is how the statisics are collected. People don't actually read the info...there is no time to do this. You are only one person among millions. No-one collecting the census cares about you specifically. You are anonymous.
Say you use a wheelchair....that info will come out the other end and any other wheel chair uses in your area will also be noted. If there are enough of you then any special needs of wheel chair users will be taken into consideration in the planning of health services by your local government. The census determines where schools and hospitals will be built and other needs of the community can be met.
Here is a link for the reasons for holding the census in the UK. It's the same in Australia and probably the same in USA.:
http://www.ons.gov.uk/census/what-is-a-census/why-have-census
No-one is spying on you or prying into your life. It wouldn't matter if you were a chicken sexer or a nun, the info is collected in order to keep up with the changes in society so correct planning can be done, resources allocated and investments managed and so on.
@nicolec (2671)
• United States
18 Mar 10
The census is a double edge sword. For one, it's for posterity reasons. In 50-100 years from now they will be able to look back and see what America was like. They will have a record of who was living. It's one way I found my ancenstor information. I found records from the 1920 census as to where they were living and how old they were. So in one respect, it's not such a bad thing.
On the other hand, yes it does go a little too far into our personal information. Yeah, its for demographic reasons to get a big picture on each area with in the country. And if you think about it, they really aren't getting any more information then what the IRS already knows about us. But it can feel like an invasion of privacy. And if I was disabled, thank the good Lord I am not, chances are the government already knows.
In the end, the census has some good points and some bad. It's difficult to know where that line is.
@twoey68 (13627)
• United States
22 Mar 10
Most of those questions are nobody's business and I know I won't be answering them. It's a way of forcing ppl to be part of a statistic without asking if they want to. The census is only supposed to be for a head count...not to nose into your personal business. The short survey we got already asked a lot of questions about race (something I didn't think was relevent) but we filled it out and sent it back.
[b]~~AT PEACE WITHIN~~
**STAND STRONG IN YOUR BELIEFS**[/b]
1 person likes this
@bdugas (3578)
• United States
19 Mar 10
Makes you wonder if this has anything to do with the ObamaCare, first of all it is none of the business of the census any of these questions. The census is to count the number of people that live in each area. What my disabilities are is none of their business. I can see them asking if you are a citizen, that I can deal with.I could even cope with the questions of married or single,or had I served in the armed forces. But that is about as far as I would go. I suggest that they send this form to another person because I will not fill it out and send it in. why don't they just ask you for your bank account numbers too. I lived in Louisiana where they came around and talked to you taking the census, they did ask about education, but it gave them an idea of the people that they listed asbeing on the poverty level, but most of the question I did not answer, I just told them sorry not any of your business. I do believe if we don't get Obama out of the White House, we will be made to answer these types of questions for real. The government has gotten the idea that it needs to stick their nose way up farther in my asre, than it needs to be, and until we stand up and say no, this type of stuff is going to happen. So what are they going to do put 3 million people in jail for not answering those questions. Hey they got to feed me and clothe me. But they will not be getting those answers from me.
@estherlou (5015)
• United States
19 Mar 10
A little strong, but right on! This is BIG BROTHER incarnate. Remember that book? The government spied on people through their tv's. And, I think, used subliminal suggestions to brain wash the public. We still have some rights, I believe. They can ask the questions as long as we can still say no.
@MsTickle (25180)
• Australia
24 Mar 10
They ask the questions in order to do the planning so that the needs of the community can be met.
I'll bet you all complain about how you don't have this and don't have that, not enough schools, hoospitals, traffic is bad, inappropriate health services and so on...well guess what...if you filled out the census your needs and the needs of the rest of the community can be noted and planning can be done
.
Who do you think you are anyway? Why would anyone in government care about you specifically? No-one cares about your personal business but they do need the info that only you can provide. Yeah, they want the numbers and you are a number, nothing else.
@bdugas (3578)
• United States
25 Mar 10
Who do I think I am, a United States citizen, I live in a free country, where I have rights and when it comes to anything this weirdo wants from me I will use my rights. The census is to count heads, as to how many live in your area, for federal money for the community to get. COUNT HEADS, don't see where that has a thing to do with these other questions, now if you choose to give out all your disabilities and medicine you take and how much your home is worth, or what kind of car you drive or how many times a year you go to the doctor, then by all means do it, but untill we are no longer free, I will answer the questions as to how many live here in my house and that is it. And I DON"T complain about anything I live in a nice area, where we have enough schools, nice roads and a hospital on every other block, I am proud of what our community does for it's people. And I am proud to live in this USA, but until I am no longer a us citizen I will live by the laws and law says how many in your household and that is it, but I am sure there are plenty of people like you that can't wait to run it mouth about everything you got and how many times a day you go to the doctor by all means continue, cause you keep them off the rest of us.
@BarBaraPrz (45487)
• St. Catharines, Ontario
17 Mar 10
Just the facts, ma'am...
They certainly are thorough, aren't they?
I don't know about the US, but here in Canada if you don't answer the census survey, you're breaking the law...
1 person likes this
@estherlou (5015)
• United States
19 Mar 10
Same here, but this is NOT the regular census. The regular census has 10 questions for person #1 of the house and 7 questions for anyone else. This is something entirely different they are trying to sneak out at the same time.
1 person likes this
@scarlet_woman (23465)
• United States
19 Mar 10
if it shows up,i'm not filling it out.that's way too nosy for me.
@nova1945 (1612)
• United States
18 Mar 10
I have not heard about this one. I had no objection to the first one and understand the need for an accurate head count. But this one goes a bit too far in my opinion. If we receive one of these it will go into the trash. We have nothing to hide but thses are personal questions that are none of their business. All of those questions can be answered by cross checking tax returns, etc. The federal government already has all that info and I will not offer it again to them.
1 person likes this
