Last week, I got a call from someone claiming to be with the US Census Bureau. This lady asked why I had not returned
my American Community Survey form which had been mailed to my physical address. When I explained that I don't receive
my mail there, then she told me we could fill out the questionaire over the phone. I refused to answer her intrusive
questions as I really had no idea who she was. She asked me to call an 800 number for verification and told me that
my answers were "mandatory". Since anyone can have an 800 number and have someone there to "verify" identity, that is
a stupid suggestion and the idea that it is mandatory for me to answer the kind of questions she had was enough to
make me tell her to go away.
I looked up the ACS information at
http://www.census.gov/acs/www/
and learned a lot about it, including thatit is statutorily mandatory, according to
US Code Title 13.
I got another call today (Feb 11, 2007) from another woman with the same requests and responses. I still was not happy
with answering any of her questions over the phone and the idea of the "suspect caller" giving me a phone number to verify their identity is ludicrous at best. Anyway, I had answered my name, date of birth and number of people in
the household when my phone battery gave out and thus she probably thinks I hung up on her. I should have. I have
further researched this ACS thing and it's likely that a protective spirit killed my phone battery!
I recommend the following blog site.
http://www.survivalarts.com/archives/001095.html
Read the whole blog from beginning to end. Afterwards, you will likely do exactly as I intend.
I will not respond any further to the questions on the American Community Survey. If a representative of the Census
comes to my door in an effort to cooerce me so to do, I will politely order them off of my property. If they do not
immediately leave, I will call the Sheriff and request that trespass laws be enforced. I have already written snail-mail
letters for my Congressional Representatives in protest of this intrusive and offensive survey.
I have read the questions from the sample form that is available on the internet:
http://www.census.gov/acs/www/Downloads/SQuest05.pdf
and I don't believe any of this is the business of the United States Government. I urge anyone out there to research this
issue carefully before filling out this survey. If you feel, as do I and many others, that we taxpayers should not be paying
for this survey, nor should we be "required" to answer such invasive questions, then please write your Congressmen and
make your voices heard.
1 comment:
Hi Larry! I'd like to thank you very much for recommending your readers check out the ACS-related posting on my blog:
http://www.survivalarts.com/archives/001095.html
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