Census Efficiencies

Direct from the MyTwoCensus website:
“In the past week, many New York City Census Bureau employees have been terminated. MyTwoCensus.com has received substantial evidence from two individuals who have alerted us that since the Denver, Colorado region was ahead of schedule, they have since flown workers to New York, put them at hotels, paid them per diems, and provided meals for them. Yes, you are reading this correctly. A city of 8 million people does not have enough competence to complete a task, so the Census Bureau has recruited folks from Denver to help them get the job done. If this isn’t inefficiency, what is?”
Why didn’t they take us from Detroit? We finished ahead of schedule. I’d love to see New York City.

Census Had Enough

Have to go travel 16 miles one way to turn in my work from yesterday. Had a lousy day. So many people in this last tract aren’t home. Cars in the driveway but houses sealed up and no one answers. I’ve visited them twice and left a notice of visit. My sense is that I won’t have a whole lot more luck today looking for proxies.
One guy, who answered the door on two separate occasions, count them, TWO. Both times he told me I just missed ‘her’ and to come back later, tomorrow, this evening, ja-da ja-da. He claimed he knew nothing about the residents of the house. Didn’t know them, couldn’t answer any questions, said I was asking too many questions. There was a small children standing behind him.
Obviously does not want to be counted or identified. That could be why they had the glass panel next to the door covered with fancy newspaper.
I think I will turn the remaining work in for someone else to finish, otherwise I go out this evening and have to then go back down there tomorrow to turn stuff in.
It is also 80 degrees and humid. There is no shade in that tract housing development.
So I’ll be missing out on 2 to 5 hours work. Then Monday I can go register at the Recreation Center now that I finally have my first utility bill to prove residency. And I can lap swim there more often than at the Community College. Maybe even get a personal trainer to tell me what to do to get rid of this belly fat. Sounds like a much better option than trying to pry people’s personal info in any area where few people want to answer the door.
I’m not sure I can face climbing out of that car even one more time to try to press a broken doorbell or knock on the hard metal of the screen door.

Xenophobia and Selling Data

Census Confidentiality? The Check is in the Mail
Opinion Editorial By Dave Kopel
Some promises shouldn’t be taken seriously. “The check is in the mail,” or “Of course I’ll respect you in the morning,” or “I won’t raise taxes.” To that list should be added, “Your answers to census questions will remain completely confidential.”
Already this census season, many of homeless people have refused to divulge personal information to census takers. Some of the homeless have fears that their personal plight will be revealed to far-away relatives. That intuitive distrust of the Census Bureau may be valid.
During the 1940 census, American citizens of Japanese descent dutifully noted their forebears’ ethnicity on the census form. Those Japanese-Americans believed the Census Bureau assurance that their answers would remain secret. But in 1942 the federal government began rounding up citizens who were of Japanese descent and imprisoning them in concentration camps. How did the Justice Department know where to find Japanese-Americans? The Census Bureau told them.
The bureau kept its promise of confidentiality, it never disclosed any individual’s name and address. Instead, the bureau told the Justice Department’s concentration camp office when census tracts (small neighborhoods) had high proportions of citizens with Japanese ancestry. Knowing which neighborhoods to concentrate on, the concentration camp officials descended for house-to-house searches.
Today illegal or recently legalized aliens may fear deportation. If in the late 1990s the United States suffered an unexpected resurgence of racism and xenophobia, how would the Department of Justice know which neighborhoods to search for illegal aliens? The Census Bureau would probably hand over lists of neighborhoods with high proportions of low-income People with Hispanic or Caribbean ancestry. It is little wonder that many, recent immigrants refuse to cooperate with the census.
When other government agencies call for assistance, the Census Bureau may not even keep its word about the sanctity of data on individual households. During World War I the bureau turned over the name-and-address lists to the Justice Department for use in the search for draft resisters.
Even Americans who don’t fear persecution or prosecution may be concerned about census confidentiality. The Census Bureau is already advertising its new commercial product that will. help marketers and credit bureaus zero in on individual households. The TIGER (Topical Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing) system will “include demographic data by census block.” (A census block comprises 200 or fewer people.)
Names and addresses will be omitted, but most of the other “confidential” census data will be divulged — including those on marital status, health and income.
Credit bureaus such as TRW, which already have vast computer files on nearly everyone, will be able to use TIGER to find out a good deal more. For example, the census long form asks how many cars a household owns.
TRW could buy the data for a census block and find. that only one household in the block owns three cars. As a credit-reporting service, TIM might already have a file on a particular household in the area that 64 taken out three car loan. TRW, by matching this data with the TIGER data, could then use “confidential” census information to learn about the income, dependents, house size, race ethnicity and marital status of members of the household.
The Census Bureau, since it did not disclose anyone’s name and address, would claim that it had kept its vow of confidentiality.
The federal government has gone into the business of helping commercial enterprises find out. intimate personal data, such as the fact that an unmarried couple is living together. The legality of the Census Bureau’s operating as a reporting service for businesses is dubious.
The Constitution authorizes a census for the purpose of congressional apportionment and for direct. taxation (a tax based on the population of a state). For those constitutional purposes, a simple name and address questionnaire would suffice.

http://www.i2i.org/main/article.php?article_id=504

If you’re worried, just google your name. Now you really have something to worry about.

Does the Bureau honor Confidentiality

http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/289008

The Census Bureau assures us that ‘your confidentiality is protected’ because Title 13 requires the Census Bureau to keep all information about you and all other respondents strictly confidential,’ but those assurances are relatively useless
Despite the $350 million ad campaign for the 2010 Census urging individuals to ‘tell your story,’ many — particularly minorities and illegal immigrants who are traditionally believed the be the most under counted — will be non-compliant because of fears, some of which are over-hyped, that the information provided can reportedly be used against them.
Those fears are not completely unfounded. Widespread non-compliance, particularly among those most likely to be discriminated against by a majority, may not be strictly rooted in the ‘ignorance’ the ads are designed to overcome.
The most recent example of the U.S. government breaching census trust occurred in 2002 and 2003, when the Census Bureau handed over information that had been collected about Arab-Americans to Homeland Security.
In 1943, data from the 1940 Census was turned over to the War Department and used to intern Japanese, Italian and German Americans once the U.S. became involved in World War II. The Census data was used to monitor and persecute others who escaped internment.
An unspecified threat against President Franklin Roosevelt in 1943 resulted in the Census Bureau releasing the name, address, age, sex, citizenship status and occupation of Japanese Americans in the Washington D.C. area to the Treasury Department.
I’ve run across this info on a few websites. I’m undetermined as to the accuracy of this info and whether it is another cases of everybody on the web copying the same misinformation.

All Goods Things, and Others, Must End

No more binders! Translates to no more work. Did they really pull it off, complete enumeration before Memorial Day – at least in my neck of the woods – and I have no idea where that is, you hear that U.S. Census Officials.
And no money.
Doesn’t mean the machines are reading the data, we’re just done collecting it. What will I do each day? Worse yet what will I blog about? I can devote myself to house hunting with its lack of confidentiality and no oath of office.
I had some qualms about the oath of office. Defend the United States against everything – even aliens from outer space? During the Vietnam era I could not have sworn to defend this country under all conditions. Why is that level of devotion necessary for an enumerator. Do postal workers have to take that oath?
And the god part made me choke – does this country not yet acknowledge diversity of religious beliefs?
So if one doesn’t accept the god part, does that negate the oath?

Census and Confidentiality

Yes I like all census workers received a friendly reminder in my pay statement about confidentiality and ethics. I am certainly “aware you cannot disclose any nonpublic information that is protected by statute.” That does not include a nonspecific statement like there are a lot of idiots out there on both sides of the census.
I have posted a disclaimer that I am not writing on behalf of any government office, U.S. or otherwise.
There are some watchdogs already out there and I am drawing on other sources for my information – see MyTwoCensus – so this is also second-hand info.
So you kind souls out there who feel a need to alert me that ‘they are watching’, and to incorrectly info me that blogging is illegal, please check your info. You’re not being helpful with your fear mongering.

Census News Flash

They are pulling in new enumerators from the pool of those who failed the test! It is all part of the push to get work done.
And yes, I was told to keep going to a unit until I could find someone to give me a sufficient amount of information, past the 3 personal visits. That is the number of visits legally allowed – 3. Hey, I get an hourly wage so it’s fine if you want me to just keep knocking on the same ole doors.
The computers are still down and not processing new data. They are dependant on info from field workers to tell them how far along they are. Their machines can’t tell them.
Suspense mounts – will I be working up to Memorial Day or beyond! Stay tuned!

DISCLAIMER!

This work is fictional and consists of composites of experiences among census takers. Any resemblance to any real or living person is coincidental. I am writing in my personal capacity and not on behalf of any U.S. governmental agency.
Got a confidentiality and ethics reminder from the government. Luck this is a free blog as I can’t get any payment for writing about my experiences – now why is that? You can be a member of Congress, President of the country, cabinet member, governor and leave to become a highly paid lobbyist, or receive payment to speak about your job experiences, have sex and assorted affairs, take dubious corporate sponsored trips – but I can’t get a measely few dollars to write about my experiences?
Is it any wonder people don’t have faith in government.

Yes Virginia, there is a Census Watchdog

http://www.mytwocensus.com/about/

Check this out – make more people aware of the census screw ups. And what are our elected officials doing about it? Perhaps the spending will go unmonitored and just considered economic stimulus.

Are the Inmates Running the Asylum

What a fuck up! Everyday we get instructions that contradict the previous instructions. Now they are returning questionnaires to us for us to do additional visits because they now decided a proxy after only one visit is not acceptable.
I guess the constraints about mileage and hours worked have been swept aside, at least for today. So now even if a house is empty and has a foreclosure notice we need to find a proxy to give us as much info as possible.
And it is incredible the way they ask specific questions about a form you filled out 2 or 3 days ago. I don’t remember who the hell they were and why they didn’t know their neighbor’s birth dates.
And today was frustrating trying to find anyone home. How many house should I visit to try to find someone who can complete a form for a neighbor down the street? I guess I just keep knocking on doors. Do you know about your neighbors 3, 4 or 5 houses away?
Are other enumerators experiencing this sort of major screw up? Or is the Detroit Regional Office a major screw up?
The other problem they are having is computers down. Seems they can’t process forms. Media – where are you to document this major waste of taxpayer monies?!?
As a taxpayer I’m concerned about the wasteful expenditure of money. Is it really all that hard to instruct people on what is acceptable.
They are firing lots of people who are not producing quota – i.e. the required number of completed questionnaires per hour. And what is that number today – it changes like the weather. And if you require 3 personal visits before I look for a proxy, output will go down significantly.
Let me repeat my mantra – $16 per hour, $16 per hour. includes 30+ minutes travel time, time waiting around for daily meetings, time sending text messages. I bet a lot of enumerators just start to fudge just a little bit to get the damn form done and stop the conflicting instructions.
Yeah, this info is gonna be real accurate. You’ve got frustrated and angry enumerators compiling the data.
Is this what the new economy now means for workers? It is no different for my friend who works at the Priceline call center. But they at least offer benefits and you work longer than 3, 4 or 6 weeks.
So I will be working on just trying to complete the two binders currently in my possession. I have several more trips to make, but not enough work to get in four hours each day. A conundrum. I sense counselling for not working enough. But you want me to make all these visits, just knocking on doors where no one ever answers or is at home.