It's the principle of the matter. Also, the census offices are decentralized and ask different questions based on whatever they feel like is important in specific areas.
(btw I made her put down "Unicorn" as my race and she said there was nothing she could do about it)
Well, you could move to Cuba or Venezuela or Russia. Then you will be glad just to answer 10 extremely generic questions. And the people knocking at your door are only doing their job - they have to pay bills, too. Do you think they enjoy it dealing with assholes like yourself? Do you think they feel safe with the show your pulling of? For ousy $8/hour (or whatever they get) they get to meet "great" people like you. Awesome!!!!
You know, I don't like to be bullied into wearing a seatbelt or speeding, but is it against the law if I don't wear a seatbelt, or cause a disturbance late at night while expressing my free speech? Yes. Tough shit - Laws infringe on "rights" all of the time.I just don't like to be bullied into anything with threats against my rights.
The aggressive card? From what I remember, I received a form in the mail, without any sort of aggressive notes or people beating down my door... Sent it back business reply mail, didn't even have to get out a stamp...As soon as they started pulling the aggressive card this year I threw mine out and have no intentions of answering any questions.
Apparently they do have the right... Almost everything with the census has already been challenged legally (for decades, according to some listed at Census in the Constitution - 2010 Census ), so the likelihood that you have this novel idea that the government has no right to force citizens to comply, and it has not been challenged in court is pretty darn slim.The government does have a right to census the people, but they don't have a right to force citizens to participate who have a right to their privacy.
So this invades your right to privacy? The supreme court has ruled that it does not, so tough shit, it's legal. I wasn't referring to you specifically on the conspiracy part - more on the paranoia part. From my taxes, job history, 1099s, passport, driver's license, car registration, student loans, and any other random data the government has, they know tons of shit about me already - Would I rather that the government save their money, and figure out how to use this existing data to conduct a census? Yes. But until then, I'll just give them the information that is at no harm to me, and is less useful than all of the other data they have on me, and not waste tax money to have someone knock on my door.I don't back down as easy as others when it comes to invasion of my rights. I don't see how that in any way is a conspiracy?
Well, I guess liberty has been eroding since the first census in the 1790s...The issue is the erosion of liberty
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The same is true with filling out the census beyond a headcount.
Next time they send a census worker to the door just start masturbating in front of them. I've never tried it myself as I'm not as petty and irrationally indignant as you appear to be but they will probably leave you alone, but then you'll have to deal with the cops. Post a new thread when that happens and we'll go from there.
Census data has been used in the past to imprison Japanese AMERICANS during WWII for the entire duration of the war.
"the Census Bureau's involvement included identifying concentrations of people of Japanese ancestry in geographic units as small as city blocks, lending a senior Census Bureau official to work with the War Department on the relocation program and a willingness to disclose names and address of Japanese Americans."
The trust people place in our government simply for convenience magnified 300 million times is sad.
Print this out and hand it to them or tape it to
your door.
To Whom it May Concern,
Pursuant to Article I, Section 2, Clause 3 of the Constitution, the only information you are empowered to request is the total number of occupants at this address. My “name, sex, age, date of birth, race, ethnicity, telephone number, relationship and housing tenure” have absolutely nothing to do with apportioning direct taxes or determining the number of representatives in the House of Representatives. Therefore, neither Congress nor the Census Bureau have the constitutional authority to make that information request a component of the enumeration outlined in Article I, Section 2, Clause 3. In addition, I cannot be subject to a fine for basing my conduct on the Constitution because that document trumps laws passed by Congress.
Interstate Commerce Commission v. Brimson, 154 U.S. 447, 479 (May 26, 1894)
“Neither branch of the legislative department [House of Representatives or Senate], still less any merely administrative body [such as the Census Bureau], established by congress, possesses, or can be invested with, a general power of making inquiry into the private affairs of the citizen. Kilbourn v. Thompson, 103 U.S. 168, 190. We said in Boyd v. U.S., 116 U. S. 616, 630, 6 Sup. Ct. 524,―and it cannot be too often repeated,―that the principles that embody the essence of constitutional liberty and security forbid all invasions on the part of government and it’s employees of the sanctity of a man’s home and the privacies of his life. As said by Mr. Justice Field in Re Pacific Ry. Commission, 32 Fed. 241, 250, ‘of all the rights of the citizen, few are of greater importance or more essential to his peace and happiness than the right of personal security, and that involves, not merely protection of his person from assault, but exemption of his private affairs, books, and papers from inspection and scrutiny of others. Without the enjoyment of this right, all others would lose half their value.’”
Note: This United States Supreme Court case has never been overturned.
Respectfully,
A Citizen of the United States of America