Our census form arrived in our Ellicott City mailbox this week. Ten years ago when I last filled out the census form I was living in Columbia Town Center.There are some folks who will not fill out their census form for a variety of reasons. Some believe it to be an invasion of privacy while others has less defensible reasons for dissing the decennial document. The bottom line is that when you fail to fill out the form you cost the government more money. According to this editorial in The Sun today when someone doesn’t fill out their census form “the government will send someone to your door, and that costs an average of $57 for every response. The Census Bureau estimates that each percentage point increase in the mail response rate to the census saves $85 million. In 2000, about 72 percent of Americans (and 73 percent of Marylanders) mailed back their forms; if everyone did it this time, the government would save $1.5 billion.”
While in The Mall earlier this week I noticed that iconic antique clock that has graced the mall promenade since the very beginning was stuck at 9:00. It struck me that this could be a metaphor of sorts for Columbia Town Center.Columbia Town Center is stuck in time.
Hopefully, in the next several months we will get beyond the rancor, misinformation and false claims of those who are still smarting from the overwhelming support the redevelopment plans received from the community and get the clock moving towards Columbia’s future once more.
6 comments:
Chipotle is a metaphor for the growing influence of hispanic cultures on our society! Vera Bradley a criticism of our consumeristic fashion culture! Santa our compulsion towards lying to our youth! Don't stop at the clock, WB!
http://myraceishuman.org/
It seems really dumb to me that a census is needed to determine where $400 billion worth of resources should go. Leave that money in the hands of local citizens, and let the local governments which those folks voted for and who are on the ground in those communities decide how much to tax and what to spend the proceeds on. Not a perfect solution, but light years ahead of using census data to do the same task.
The federal government has squandered billions of dollars on needless wars, bailing out Wall Street, imposing absurd regulations, etc. The fact that they are dumb enough to squander even more on this census is not my problem. If the morons that Maryland voters elect get less power in Washington as a result of my form going in the trash, that’s just an added bonus.
Again, Freemarket seems to tap a vein.
Were any of you participants in the off year census? Yes, the Federeal government does a small off year census, which approaches a much smaller segment of the country than the regular census. I participated in this process. So, why do I need to do this again.
Seems redundant.
Also, what about the "Lie on the Census" movement? What if we all just fudged our answers...a little bit. I mean, I have six illegal alians living in my basement--should I admit that, to get illegal alien benefits for them, or should I deny, i.e., lie about it, to not get caught?
Will either stance skew the findings?
Frankly, I'm of a mind to just write, "No habla ingles, Press One for English," on the form, and just mail it back in.
I wonder how much money (& how many trees) the government would have saved if they skipped sending everyone a letter the week before the census arrived, saying the census would arrive in a week?
At least he's smart enough to see we can't win some districts--UnCommon, Anthony Jordan.
Post a Comment