I was reading some interesting facts about the census; in fact, about census taking everywhere. It seems that census taking is fast disappearing everywhere but here in the US of A. It's a Constitutional mandate, so I doubt it will be changing soon. Most countries have found that they already have the data they need within the myriad data bases that are kept by all governments. It simply requires some number crunching software that will explore all the available data and then come up with the needed information.
I was very disappointed with the last census as they had a great opportunity to gather much information and they simply blew it with that terribly abbreviated form. And now that I know how much it cost, ($13 billion) I am even more disappointed. That works out to be $36 per citizen while Finland does the same thing by data crunching for a little over a $1 million. An equivalent cost of 20 cents per head.
Taking the Constitution too literally is like taking the Bible too literally--you can wind up worshiping false gods.
ReplyDeleteWell said, Nance...that should be at the bottom of the last page of the Constitution. Hmmm? On second thought, let's put it at the beginning, on the first page and at the very top...in BOLD.
ReplyDeleteConservatives insist on the mail and door-to-door approach because it undercounts minorities. Statisticians have known for years that there are cheaper and more accurate means of determining census information, but the cons run from that like a scalded cat. Typically, of course, they claim that statistical counts will be less accurate as well as unconstitutional.
ReplyDeleteWe're inefficient in just about everything. DId you know that Mexico -- a country with one-fourth of our earnings per capita -- gets a bigger bang for its health care buck than we do? They spend a little over 4% of their GDP on health care for a life expectancy of 76+, whereas our numbers of 14.5%./78+.
ReplyDeleteConservatives had to love it this year as the census seems to irritate so many and they could blame it all on the Dem's by simply lying.
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