Census 2010

Today a census taker came to my house. It wasn't really a surprise as I knew this would happen. I knew the census was happening and I knew I didn't send mine in. To be honest, I don't remember getting it. I have enough trouble with mail these days. Personally, I wish all my stuff was done online, and most things can be. I'm just bad with mail. Opening it, putting the trash aside, keeping what's important, filing stuff away. A waste of paper. So, I'm sure I got my census. I'm also pretty sure I threw it out. Yep, silly, but I did it.

I checked the Government website and found a number to call. I couldn't find a way to do my census online, so I thought a call might help me find what I was looking for. While on the site I read this:

* Call TQA to get answers to basic questions about the 2010 Census. If you haven't participated in the census yet, you should receive a visit from us soon. Over 600,000 census-takers are currently interviewing the households that didn't return a questionnaire. Calling us now will not prevent your household from being interviewed, so please cooperate with the census taker if one visits your house.

I thought there must be something online I could. There was no way someone would actually come to my house. So I called anyway, despite the above (I'm tough to convince sometimes). Then I saw this:

Can I fill the form out online?

No, not this time. We are experimenting with Internet response options for the future.

No way to cancel the census taker coming to my house. So today, she came. And I answered the questions. I was happy to do so but kept thinking what a waste it was. The Government spends money on this stuff. With all due respect, as nice as she was, I didn't need this lady to visit my house. I would have gladly done my census online and saved the Government, and presumably all taxpayers, some money. At the least, some more of us would have done it online and saved the census takers a few trips. Seriously, how hard could a few, simple online pages be?

Here's a really great breakdown , and where I got the below info. I haven't verified it but it looks realistic to me, especially after thinking about my census lady today, and the fact she absolutely gets paid.

• $14 billion – the estimated life cycle cost of the 2010 US Census
• 305 million – the current population of the US
• $45.90 – the cost of the 2010 Census for each American
• $101.45 – Your portion of the cost if you are one of the 138 MM who actually files taxes

Hard to believe we couldn't get something online and have saved at least a little money. To me, this is a great example of how our Government really needs to set an example, and lead us into the Digital Age. Yes, I may have kept procrastinating the online option anyway, but that would have been something a good, old fashioned threat could have solved.