What happens if I don't fill out my census form? (2019) • Hacker News Board

Re: What happens if I don't fill out my census form? (2019)

#91

Post by c22 » Thu, Feb 27, 2020, 6:57 PM UTC

imtringued wrote: post #83

c22 wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there any reason to believe that more people are failing to fill out the census in my area than in other areas? Because if the failure rate is about the same everywhere it probably does make little difference.

How do you know the failure rate is the same everywhere? It is very possible that the failure rate correlates with the region because it is not a purely stochastic process. Some users here think the government has no business in demanding census information and simply ignore it.

I don't have any data either way, do you? HN users don't represent a geographical region, per se, but I suppose you could argue that they're mostly in SF? Regardless, I imagine there are other communities that might also have a higher-than-baseline failure rate, but absent any evidence I have no reason to assume they're not fairly randomly distributed geographically. Especially at the granularity of US states.

Re: What happens if I don't fill out my census form? (2019)

#92

Post by stonogo » Thu, Feb 27, 2020, 11:44 PM UTC

hurricanetc wrote: post #45

stonogo wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Counting everyone in the country" is one aspect of the census effort. Looking at where they live, what they do for a living, and if they live alone or with others are other aspects. In the US, when someone moves from one state to another, they're not required to notify the US government in any way. Most states have rules about getting your vehicles licensed within a certain time frame after settling in a state, or r…

The idea that the US federal government doesn’t know where people are and who they are talking to is hilarious. We have the biggest spying apparatus in human history. This is 100% political.

25% of Americans do not own a computer. 19% don't own a smartphone. 4% don't own a cellular phone at all. [1]

22% of Americans don't own a credit card -- although neither the Bankrate or Statistic Brain studies counted debit cards accurately, which are equally useful for tracking. [2]

All Americans do not even have Social Security numbers, as there are several moderately-sized religions who are excused from participating in the process. [3]

Finally, not everyone in America is here legally, and many of those people go to great lengths to avoid using technology or participating in programs which would lead to their identification and tracking.

All of these are good reasons to conduct a census now and then. But even if you find none of these convincing, the iron truth of the current situation is that none of these alleged panopticon efforts you're alluding to are allowed to release any of that information -- not to benefit allotment committees, not to infrastructure planners, not even to local law enforcement, so in practice it doesn't do anyone in the government any good at all.

1 - https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/fact-sheet/mobile/

2 - https://www.crnrstone.com/insightvault/2018/03/04/many-ameri...

3 - https://secure.ssa.gov/poms.nsf/lnx/0110225035

Re: What happens if I don't fill out my census form? (2019)

#93

Post by eru » Mon, Mar 02, 2020, 12:03 PM UTC

coryrc wrote: post #34

lsiebert wrote: post #26

This is worth quoting here IMHO: "However, even if you don't get fined for not filling out the census form, there are some good reasons you should do it anyway. Seats in the House of Representatives seats are apportioned by population, with the most populous states receiving the most seats. Federal and state governments rely on census data to budget for social welfare programs that assist the poor, elderly, disabled…

Some of us live where we oppose all of the current elected officials. In that case, it sounds like opting out is the only effective "vote" we can make in a FPTP system

The effective vote is the one with your feet.