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IP: Re: Les Earnest On The Census 2000 Form
From: David Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>
Date: Wed, 12 Apr 2000 11:35:06 -0400
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
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- IP: Re: Les Earnest On The Census 2000 Form David Farber (Apr 12)