var json_comments = new Array("
\"user-pic\"
CatMoran
December 0, 0000 12:00 AM
Moderate | Flag for review

Cool, can we made filling this out a community project? I think Trixare should go for a mixed race gay couple with one adopted kid and a grandchild. And make one of the kids a Native Hawaiian.

The housing questions have some entertainment possibilities, too. How about a mobile home built before 1939 with 5 bedrooms?

Reply
","
\"user-pic\"
Xian.C
December 0, 0000 12:00 AM
Moderate |Flag for review

I think if you're going to fill it out, fill it out properly. The census, flawed though it may be, is pretty important. While I don't think this is the one they take every 10 years as dictated by the Constitution (considering the last one was in 2000), it's by no means Orwelian. I just sent mine in and the only question I found personal was about my income. No real biggie when you consider the IRS has that information. Still, I estimated on the census form. Other than that, there was a request for contact information, and I only gave them what they already had - address and 1 daytime phone number.

Everyone has a right to their beliefs, and if you're not comfortable filling out a form for the government, don't fill it out. Sending in a bogus census form sounds pretty childish to me.

Reply
","
\"user-pic\"
konstantConsumer
December 0, 0000 12:00 AM
Moderate |Flag for review

i would say that if you live in a \"blue\" state, you should lie and say that 10,357 people live in your home. if you live in a \"red\" state, see if they will buy that -3,586 people live there. gotta take away some reps and electoral college votes from mississippi, i say.

Reply
","
\"user-pic\"
airship
December 0, 0000 12:00 AM
Moderate |Flag for review

I feel your pain as far as sharing your personal information with the gub'mint. The Bush administration is more likely to abuse that information than any other in history. However, as others have explained above, they use this info for everything from doling out money to schools and road building, to alloting how many Representatives your state gets in Washington. It's important. Think of it as a necessary evil, like getting a vaccination. Or having your leg amputated when you get gangrene.

Reply
","
\"user-pic\"
Smoking Pope
December 0, 0000 12:00 AM
Moderate |Flag for review

Word of caution. My wife filled one of these out and was contacted to see if she'd like to answer some additional questions. My wife has a hard time saying no to this kind of thing, so she said yes and they set up a time to send a census worker over.

The worker came over and proceeded to ask questions until my wife booted her from the house on the grounds that she had to get some sleep for work the next day. The worker then remarked, \"Well, we got through a third of it!\".

Over the next 6 months, this worker HAUNTED her. She must've had a boatload of questions and a quota to meet. My wife became wary of the personal nature of a lot of the questions and told her she'd like to stop. This didn't stop Jane P. Census. It took freaking forever to get rid of her.

So, for those of you who will fulfill your legal obligation, be aware that you may be asked to VOLUNTARILY answer more questions. Answer wisely.

Reply
","
\"user-pic\"
Exasperatrix
December 0, 0000 12:00 AM
Moderate |Flag for review

I understand that most of the questions on this form are actually voluntary. You don't have to give your name, for example, and can just say \"Resident Male\" or something. For the other questions, just write \"skip\" on the ones you don't like. You can call the census people and they should tell you which questions you have to answer to get them off your back. If you just leave them blank, they'll keep bugging you until they get a response.

It's better to give no response than to give bogus information; they do use the information to evaluate community needs and bad information will just lead to bad allocation of funds.

Reply
","
\"user-pic\"
Gubmentagent
May 21, 2010 1:18 AM
Moderate |Flag for review

Why don't you just do what you're supposed to do? FFS, this isn't an information dealer trying to sell your email to penis growth spammers. The information is all gathered by computers, spit out as non-identifiable statistics, and classified for 72 years. Your fine might be a measly $100, but the fine for anyone related to the census giving out your precious info to anyone, anywhere, is $250,000 and a 5-year jail term.

That being said, you've already given your information, or even received it in the first place, from all the troublesome government organizations, like the IRS and SSA. Yet here you are writing an article to bitch about the only bureau in the government that doesn't use the information to harass, obstruct, and steal from the people. BTW, the census doesn't care if you're gay.

Reply
","
\"user-pic\"
taxpayer046
October 23, 2010 3:23 PM
Moderate |Flag for review

I pay my taxes, I completed the census. I am an American from birth. I still take issue with some of the questions on this survey and I take issue with the secrecy of this survey. If they want this survey completed, they should launch a media campaign as they did with the census. I spoke with our local law enforcement who told me all of our schools, highways, hospitals are established in our area, so the rationale for asking what time I leave for work (hour/min) does not apply. They asked about income, education, employment-all information that can be obtain by the IRS, dept of treasury, dept of education-they don't need to know if I can walk up a flight of stairs or run errands-none of their business. Government is overstepping and that is a dangerous thing.

Reply
");