Hi there.
A couple of years ago I was doing research for a school paper about the U.S. census. My research involved reading a lot of reports of government oversight agencies, such as the Government Accountability Office and the Inspector General of the Department of Commerce, and more. Although it had nothing to do with the topic of my paper, I eventually concluded that the Census Bureau is corrupt, and the 2010 census was conducted in bad faith. That is, though Im sure 99% of the people working at the Census Bureau only wanted to conduct a proper census, the people in charge the people making the decisions had no interest in that. They were using their positions to make themselves rich.
There was one particular project that I'd like to call everybody's attention to. It was called "Address Canvassing," and it cost the public over 1 billion dollars. THis happened in 2009, when the Census Bureau supposedly sent 140,000 census workers walking down "every known street" in the country, knocking on every door, interviewing people about their addresses. For the reasons I describe below, I don't think this actually happened. I think the people running the Census Bureau knew in advance that they weren't going to really do it, and that any money put in the budget for it could be safely embezzled. If I'm right about this, it is something we (meaning, the people) can investigate on our own (that is, without the help of the government).
I've described it in a post on my website, but I've pasted the whole thing below, so you don't have to go to my website to read it. However, there are two things on my website that are not here: 1 is the evidence for my claims. If you go to the website, you'll see links that reveal direct quotes from GAO reports, inspector general reports, etc. There is also a poll on my website that, while I can't claim it's scientific, might help us figure out to what extent Address Canvassing really happened. The link to my website is in my profile.
Some background on Address Canvassing
The census wasnt always done by mail. They used to send census workers out to interview people in person. In 1970 the Census Bureau started sending forms out in the mail, in order to save money by not having to hire and train all those workers to walk down every street, interviewing people. Seems reasonable. One day, somebody at the Census Bureau apparently decided that the Post Office could not be relied on to come up with a list of all the mailing addresses in the country. So the Census Bureau does the only logical thing: it sends census workers walking down every street, knocking on every door, interviewing people, asking them if the number printed on their door or mailbox is their address, and if not, what is their address? Do they get mail at their address? And do they know of any other addresses?
Needless to say, this defeats the purpose of using the mail. If you have to send the workers out interviewing everybody anyway you might as well take the census at that time, rather than send out a form in the mail later. Its a bit like walking to a guys house to get his address just so you can walk back home and send him a letter asking him where he lives. When they did it in 2000, it was a last resort. They weren't going to do it this time. Then, without explanation, the bureau decided to do 100% address canvassing anyway. The oversight agencies kept asking the bureau to provide justification for this decision, to do a cost benefit analysis and consider alternatives, but the bureau refused to do so.
For some reason, the Census Bureau insisted on doing Address Canvassing despite the apparent stupidity of it, despite not having done a cost-benefit analysis, not having considered alternatives, not having any evidence that it was beneficial, and despite the objections of the oversight agencies.
Or, at least they said they were going to do it.
Did they?
I know they did some address canvassing because I saw people complaining about it on youtube. But it didnt happen at my house. It didnt happen in my neighborhood. I dont think they did it for real at all, I think they just, sort of, pretended to do it. There were several reports that the Census Bureau hired and trained huge numbers of people and them gave them no work to do. I read reports written by temporary workers who did get work, but claimed there was no regard to quality and that they were pressured into not doing it, by their own supervisors. Many census workers said similar things. It was like they knew they would not be using what we had done, said one of them. The inspector generals office confirmed this was happening, noted the widespread nature of the problem, and asked the Census Bureau to look into it, which the bureau refused to do.
Despite the widespread skipping of procedures, Address Canvassing came in 25% over-budget., for a total of $444 million. When you include the cost of the $1.3 billion handheld computers (or HHCs in Census-speak) that were not used for anything other than Address Canvassing, Address Canvassing cost the public roughly $1.75 billion. Theres no way of knowing what that money was actually spent on, because the Census Bureaus financial records are always un-auditable. The sole function of the Census Bureau is to collect and store information, and yet decade after decade it remains incapable of maintaining its own financial records.
Again, if you would like to see the evidence I have for making these claims, or would like to participate in the poll, the link is in my profile.
Thanks
A couple of years ago I was doing research for a school paper about the U.S. census. My research involved reading a lot of reports of government oversight agencies, such as the Government Accountability Office and the Inspector General of the Department of Commerce, and more. Although it had nothing to do with the topic of my paper, I eventually concluded that the Census Bureau is corrupt, and the 2010 census was conducted in bad faith. That is, though Im sure 99% of the people working at the Census Bureau only wanted to conduct a proper census, the people in charge the people making the decisions had no interest in that. They were using their positions to make themselves rich.
There was one particular project that I'd like to call everybody's attention to. It was called "Address Canvassing," and it cost the public over 1 billion dollars. THis happened in 2009, when the Census Bureau supposedly sent 140,000 census workers walking down "every known street" in the country, knocking on every door, interviewing people about their addresses. For the reasons I describe below, I don't think this actually happened. I think the people running the Census Bureau knew in advance that they weren't going to really do it, and that any money put in the budget for it could be safely embezzled. If I'm right about this, it is something we (meaning, the people) can investigate on our own (that is, without the help of the government).
I've described it in a post on my website, but I've pasted the whole thing below, so you don't have to go to my website to read it. However, there are two things on my website that are not here: 1 is the evidence for my claims. If you go to the website, you'll see links that reveal direct quotes from GAO reports, inspector general reports, etc. There is also a poll on my website that, while I can't claim it's scientific, might help us figure out to what extent Address Canvassing really happened. The link to my website is in my profile.
Some background on Address Canvassing
The census wasnt always done by mail. They used to send census workers out to interview people in person. In 1970 the Census Bureau started sending forms out in the mail, in order to save money by not having to hire and train all those workers to walk down every street, interviewing people. Seems reasonable. One day, somebody at the Census Bureau apparently decided that the Post Office could not be relied on to come up with a list of all the mailing addresses in the country. So the Census Bureau does the only logical thing: it sends census workers walking down every street, knocking on every door, interviewing people, asking them if the number printed on their door or mailbox is their address, and if not, what is their address? Do they get mail at their address? And do they know of any other addresses?
Needless to say, this defeats the purpose of using the mail. If you have to send the workers out interviewing everybody anyway you might as well take the census at that time, rather than send out a form in the mail later. Its a bit like walking to a guys house to get his address just so you can walk back home and send him a letter asking him where he lives. When they did it in 2000, it was a last resort. They weren't going to do it this time. Then, without explanation, the bureau decided to do 100% address canvassing anyway. The oversight agencies kept asking the bureau to provide justification for this decision, to do a cost benefit analysis and consider alternatives, but the bureau refused to do so.
For some reason, the Census Bureau insisted on doing Address Canvassing despite the apparent stupidity of it, despite not having done a cost-benefit analysis, not having considered alternatives, not having any evidence that it was beneficial, and despite the objections of the oversight agencies.
Or, at least they said they were going to do it.
Did they?
I know they did some address canvassing because I saw people complaining about it on youtube. But it didnt happen at my house. It didnt happen in my neighborhood. I dont think they did it for real at all, I think they just, sort of, pretended to do it. There were several reports that the Census Bureau hired and trained huge numbers of people and them gave them no work to do. I read reports written by temporary workers who did get work, but claimed there was no regard to quality and that they were pressured into not doing it, by their own supervisors. Many census workers said similar things. It was like they knew they would not be using what we had done, said one of them. The inspector generals office confirmed this was happening, noted the widespread nature of the problem, and asked the Census Bureau to look into it, which the bureau refused to do.
Despite the widespread skipping of procedures, Address Canvassing came in 25% over-budget., for a total of $444 million. When you include the cost of the $1.3 billion handheld computers (or HHCs in Census-speak) that were not used for anything other than Address Canvassing, Address Canvassing cost the public roughly $1.75 billion. Theres no way of knowing what that money was actually spent on, because the Census Bureaus financial records are always un-auditable. The sole function of the Census Bureau is to collect and store information, and yet decade after decade it remains incapable of maintaining its own financial records.
Again, if you would like to see the evidence I have for making these claims, or would like to participate in the poll, the link is in my profile.
Thanks
