IP: Re: Les Earnest On The Census 2000 Form

[David Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

> Date: Wed, 12 Apr 2000 10:56:50 -0400
> To: farber () cis upenn edu
> From: "Sandy F. Smith, Jr." <smiths () pobox upenn edu>
> Subject: Re: IP: Les Earnest On The Census 2000 Form
>
> This may be picking a nit, but how could he answer *any* Census 
> questions in years not ending in 0?  And I'm not aware of questions 
> about race on IRS Form 1040.
>
> On his more serious point: He's basically right about racial 
> classifications.  But as for the other questions which are "none of 
> the government's business", we -- through our elected 
> representatives -- have decided that we want the federal government 
> to pick up all or part of the tab for a bunch of things: roads, 
> sewers, transit systems, school construction, emergency services and 
> so on, and the funds for those are distributed on the basis of 
> population.
>
> "So why do the Feds need to know how long it takes me to commute to 
> work?"  Maybe the Feds don't, but local officials do so they can 
> figure out *where* and *how* to spend the Federal, state and local 
> money allocated for projects like those above.  And frankly, it's 
> far more efficient for this sort of data to be collected by one 
> agency with a proven track record of protecting privacy over 
> centuries than by thousands of smaller outfits sending out targeted 
> surveys (though these also are done routinely, mainly by independent 
> or academic researchers).
>
> I would suggest that before flat-out refusing to answer the long 
> form (and why is there so much fuss being made over it *now* 
> anyway?), you might want to ask yourself:  "Do I find the 
> _Statistical Abstract of the United States_ useful, or do I know 
> someone who does or might?" If it were the IRS collecting this data, 
> I would worry more than I do about the Census Bureau doing so.
>
> --Sandy
>
> --
> --
> Sandy Smith, University Relations / 215.898.1423 / smiths () pobox upenn edu
> Associate Editor, _Pennsylvania Current_          current () pobox upenn edu
> (Gold Medal Winner, Internal Periodicals, 2000 CASE Circle of Excellence)
> Penn Web Team -- Web Editor                       webmaster () isc upenn edu