Hacker News Reader

Comment by clammer | Hacker News Reader

People should only note how many people live in the dwelling and send it back. That's the only constitutionally approved question the census is supposed to ask.

The rest of the questions are there to tell politicians what group they should pander to and how to reconfigure congressional zones.

The census TV ads about filling in your race (actually your country of ancestry) are really pissing me off too. It wasn't that long ago census data was used to roundup Japanese citizens during WWII...they claimed it was private back then too.

View on HN

Are you sure about the "constitutionally approved" quip? I watched Gary Locke on The Daily Show on March 18th, and he clears up a bunch of these misconceptions and privacy concerns. Specifically, he says that Jefferson was the head of the first census committee, and half of the questions even in 2010 census are questions put in by Madison.

I also don't understand why it's fashionable to distrust the census. It happens in most countries and they ask more or less the same questions. We all care about the economic and racial demographics of places where we live and work; where do you think that information comes from?

EDIT: link to interview: http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-march-18-2010/gary-loc...

The Constitution (Article 1 Section 2) specifically gives the House of Representatives power to decide the questions present in the census: "[I]n such Manner as [the House] shall by Law direct."

Here are the questions asked in the first census, conducted in 1790:

* Name of the head of each household.

* How many free white males age 16 and older.

* How many free white males under age 16.

* How many free white females.

* How many of all other free persons.

* How many slaves.

I don't suppose you're a fan of Michelle Bachmann's, are you? Here's a recent response a FOX News(!) anchor gave Bachmann regarding this:

“We’ve had a lot of good years since then,” Kelly said. “That was a different time and a different era. We’ve had decades since then when, at least to our knowledge, this information hasn’t been abused. So how do you respond to people who say, ‘Look, we’ve been doing it for decades since then. The law is what it is and you as a lawmaker should know better than to break it.’”

http://minnesotaindependent.com/37810/bachmann-links-census-...

If we don't know how many [Japanese] we have, how do we know how many [prison camps] to build?

We can't move forward until you mail it back.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com