Census Cents Makes No Sense

As many of you know, I am retired. The last 20 years of my working life was in law enforcement. I remember in late 1999 and early 2000, we were sent briefing items talking about the census.

We were told that if we got any calls about the census, we should know what’s going on. We learned that there was a census every decade. You’d be surprised at how many young cops didn’t know that. Of course, most were living with parents during the last census, so this was something new for them. Now we learned that the law says that everyone is required to respond to the census. So, if anyone asks us we’ll know. As the time got closer we received more briefing items.

Then it arrived. It was amazing to me how many calls our dispatch center received. Some asking about the census and what was required by law. Others complaining because they hadn’t gotten a form.

Now, at my house in the early nineties, we had cluster boxes. The mailboxes had been broken into several times, so my wife and I decided to get a PO Box. The postal employee at our post office explained that since we were going to get mail at our PO Bx then they would forward any mail we received at the old address for a full 180 days. Cool, but after that, we could only get mail at the PO Bx and the cluster box would be treated as if the residence was empty. Ok, I could deal with that.

So, that meant that in 2000, I did not receive a census form for my household. So, I called the census bureau office. I asked what would happen. They said not to worry, they would put one in the mail right away to my PO Bx. The worker also explained that for houses that they didn’t get a reponse from, a census worker would be sent to knock on the door and get the info.

There was lot’s of talk about census workers on the news. Apparently, there were lot’s of scammers out there who would knock on doors and get information about people then steal their identity. So to combat this, the census bureau did a very good thing. They sent each police department a letter saying that when there was a census worker in our area, he would check in with the local police or sheriff. They would give their name and what area they would be in that day. They would also have an official form of identification identifying them as a census worker. That way, the citizens could check with the local law enforcement office and see if the guy claiming to be a census worker was legit.

I never got the form they said they'd mail me, but lo and behold, one afternoon, there was a knock at my door. A middle aged hispanic gentleman identified himself as a census worker. I excused myself and said I would be right with him. I then went in and called the local dispatch center. Guess what? No one had checked in with them for about a week. Hmmm.

I went back out and talked with the guy. Surely, he was for real because there was a police car sitting in my drive way and no criminal would be that brazen. He had all the right credentials. So, I figured, what the hey. I had been through the census a few times, what could it hurt. So, this guy starts asking questions.

Now from the censuses I had been through, I remembered that they asked who all lived there, what their names are, hold old are they, what do they do for a living, and what relationship they were to the head of the household. They also asked some education questions and about race.

This guy starts asking questions and he asks for specific birth dates and social security numbers. So I said, NOPE, you ain’t gettin’ that. I had spent too many hours working identity theft cases and I trained my guys and girls to tell citizens, never ever give out social security numbers, birth dates, or maiden names unless you are absolutely positive who you are giving them to. So, I tell the guy, that I’ll be happy to drive to Palm Springs and give them that info, or if he could just give me the form, I’ll fill it out and mail it in right now. He gave me a spiel about the law and said he would notify his supervisor and someone would contact me.

So, I’m at work the next day, out in the field doing my supervisor duties when dispatch tells me to come to the station and see the Deputy Chief. I get there and he asked me why I wasn’t cooperating with the census bureau. I explained as above. While I was in his office, he makes a call to the census people, tells someone that I was in his office and I would be happy to cooperate. He then explains to them why I did not the night before. Then he laughs some and hands me the phone. At the other end of the phone was this condisending asshole who first starts giving me the riot act telling me how I could go to jail, etc. So I tell him, look I gotta go do some police work, could I come out to his office that afternoon. His whole attitude immediately changes and ask that I call back when I’m available and that the whole thing would only take a few minutes. So I hang up.

The Deputy Chief just kinda looks at me in amusement without saying a word. So I tell him that I couldn’t believe that asshole talking to me like that and how he could kiss my ass if he thought I was gonna take that crap from him. He just smiled and said to make sure I take care of it, that what he thought was bullshit was that he was getting a call about it.

I then called dispatch and asked how many census takers had checked in this week. The answer was ZERO, absolutely none. Remember, I had already called the neighboring city where I live the night before. I then went to the briefing room and dug out the papers on the clipboard from the census bureau. I then walked up to the report writing room and placed the call.

This time the guy was very nice and thanked me for calling back. He went through the questions and I answered each one without questioning the necessity of the question knowing that he wasn’t the one who designed the form, he was just filling it out. But, knowing too, that he was a supervisor, I asked him very calmly and politely why his workers weren’t following the protocol that the census bureau had set up to avoid these types of things. He never really gave me an answer but said he’d look into it. I then told him I had one last question.

I asked him why he had called my place of employment instead of contacting me. I said I thought it quite odd, and asked if he would have called my boss, say, had I worked for the phone company or a grocery store. You’ll never believe what he told me. His answer was that the question I was asking sounds like one that should be directed to his legal department. WEIRD! I thanked him and we both hung up.
The next morning I asked dispatch if any of census takers had checked in, then I asked a week later. None did, ever.

Back to today.

Now, having told my story, I would like to say.... I am 100% for the census. I have a hobby of genealogy and genealogists love censuses. That's where most family tree info is obtained. The census is good. They use it for a lot of things other than just population counts. Those demographic numbers will be used over and over again for decisions on marketing, how do distribute federal and state funding. The schools will use it to decide boundries, bussing issues, etc. The census is a good thing. I encourage you to go to 2010.census.gov and take a look.

See the form:
http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/MSNBC/Sections/NEWS/A_U.S.%20news/Life/2010CensusQuestionnaire.pdf

One thing the census people won’t be asking this time around is social security number. They will be asking for birth dates. Of the ten questions on their form, I personally feel three are completely unnecessary. You decide.

This census is costing us, the taxpayers, approximately $14 Billion. That’s ridiculous as far as I’m concerned. The “trained enumerators” (what the census people call the counters) are getting between $15 and $20 an hour. That could have easily been done with $10 an hour and using college students, senior citizens, and the unemployed. Or, they could have had the unemployed and welfare people do it for that free money we’re giving them. I know, employers pay into unemployment.

Today, I got a letter in the mail telling me that the census is coming in the mail next week. There’s another $100 million wasted. 2010,census.gov says this was done because of surveys and research saying that they would get a better response. The surveys and research are a huge waste. Who knows how much they spend on that. I know whenever the city contracted with a consultant for anything, it was a minimum $25G. Imagine what the Feds pay.

One last interesting fact. They say on their website that for every one percent of people that don’t respond, it costs $85 million to send people out and collect the information. They say also that from the mailers, they only receive a 70 % response. That means that once they’ve sent it out and got the 70 % back, it then costs another $2.5 Billion. Ok, so 14 billion all together. 85 million for each 1 percent. Times 100 percent is only $8.5 billion. By those numbers, we could have saved $5.5 billion dollars by just sending people to the house to start with.

Census 2010....BE COUNTED!

A Case For Math

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I remember sitting in freshman algebra doing graphs and thinking to myself how I would never use this in the real world. Boy was I wrong.

Forty two years later, not only do we see graphs constantly, I actually have drawn graphs to show relationships in classes that I was teaching.

Whenever I get my deferred compensation statement (my nest egg), I get a pie chart showing where each dollar of my investment is. Do I have enough to retire? Get that one wrong! Jeez, what about with an average of 3% inflation... Math, math...

This year is census year. That means next year we’ll see a plethora of demographic charts and graphs.

I remember thinking, ok, how will this affect me? It’s effects are startling if you think about it. Insurance companies use them constantly to do actuary studies to decide how much your premiums will be.

And what is all this? This is Math! Math is numbers.

Everything we do has a number relationship. First thing n the morning, the alarm goes off, you start the math.

If I can just sleep another half hour (fractions) then I’ll still have 45 minutes to get showered and off to work (subtraction). Do I have time for breakfst.

Recipes ½ cup this, quarter cup this. Half gallon milk. Fractions after fraction. Try replacing a teaspoon of salt with a tablespoon. Yuck!

The wife says “Do you have any money?” I subtract it from my wallet and add it to hers. Do the math. Will I now have enough for lunch or do I need to go to the bank and make a withdrawal from the ATM.

Don’t forget to subtract that withdrawal from the checkbook. Does it balance? Oh oh, running low on cash. How to pay the overdue bills.

Now my blood pressure is gonna go up from the stress. 180 over 120 when it should be 120 over 80. Math again. Makes your heart beat faster, math again.

Gotta get to work. How much gas do I have? I only have $5 to spare this morning, how much gas will that get me at $2.59 a gallon. Will that get to me work and back? Algebra. If I stop and it takes me ten minutes to gas up, how long do I have to make it to work? How much faster will I have to go? Math, algebra.

Then once at work. Engineering, all math, physics, geometry. Accounting, all math.
Construction, lot’s of math especially in design and in getting permits. Oh man, what happens if I miscalculate that bid?

Working a csh register, even an automated one. Get the math wrong the customer will let you know, and if not, at teh end of your shift when the register doesn't balance, the boss will let you know it. Math.

Even the burglar is calculating how much time he’s got before the alarm goes off and the cops arrive. Math, math, math.

Weight loss, weight gain, clothing sizes...math, math.

My union is negotiating a raise of 2%. How should I vote? Will the increase in pay put me in that higher tax bracket and actually give me less money? MATH.

A traffic officer reconstructs a major traffic accident. TRIGONOMETRY! Math, algebra, geometry, physics....

Face it, every part of our lives is math. Some simple math, other times higher. So next time your kid says “I’ll never need that in real life..”

Au contraire!

Earthquakes

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We in California are used to small tremors. It's pretty common.

Recently, we have been getting lots and lots of news on Haiti and now Chile. I thought I would post this short message just to give you an idea on the difference between the size of earthquakes as they occur on the Richter scale.

According to the US Geological Service, an earthquake is amplified in magnitude ten times per whole number on the scale. (http://earthquake.usgs.gov/learn/topics/richter.php) In energy released though, each whole number is 31 times greater. That means, of course, that a 4.0 is ten times greater than a 3.0 in magnitude and 31 times greater in energy released.

Now let's compare Haiti 7.0 to Chile at 8.8. Simple subtraction gives us a 1.8 difference. That means that in amplitude Chile was 18 times greater than Haiti but in energy released, it was just short of 56 times greater. Whew!

The Haiti quake of Jan 12th lasted 30 to 40 seconds according to wiki.answers.com, but I heard on the news this morning that the Chile quake from Saturday lasted almost 3 minutes. Wow! If you've ever been through a quake, 30 seconds is an eternity.

Close your eyes and try to imagine that 3 minutes.
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