Who of you has done American Community Survey?

Rushie

Rushie

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Rushie
Just got this thing.... if you have gotten it then you know what I am talking about. I have NO intention of answering all these inane, intrusive questions.

I want to know what you did about it, specifically, if you did not tell them what they want to know, were you harassed, fined and jailed?

I have researched the net and called my congressman and gotten all sorts of advice from "don't fill it out" to "answer everything as they ask".

I want to know if they have actually prosecuted people for not answering these questions. By constitutional law, I must answer only how many people live in this house, but my understanding is I needn't give any other info, not even my name. I know they will follow up with phone calls and personal visits, but if you continue to refuse to cooperate do they eventually give up or do they send the police to your home?

Rush
 
A quick Googlage of "American Community Survey" took me to the census bureau website, as far as I can tell.

http://www.census.gov/acs/www/

Perhaps you can unsubscribe from the list where you are currently enrolled.
Dawn was a 2000 census worker, and if she got no response from a household picked for thee "long form" after (I think) 3 tries, they gave up. No penalties or nighttime raids on the domicile.

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No, this is not an e-mail survey. It is a 24 page paper questionaire addressed to "resident". You get a letter a few days before it arrives telling you that answering it is mandatory by law. Here are some of the questions:

* What time do you leave to go to work?

* Do you have any trouble dressing, bathing, or getting around inside your home?

* Did you stay home sick from your job last week?

* List all your income from all sources.

* What is the name of your employer?

* How many bathrooms are inside your home?

* What was your electric bill last month?

* Do you have a second mortgage or home equity loan on your house?

* What is your ancestry or ethnic origin? Example, Italian, Cambodian, Canadian, Polish, etc.

* Do you have any difficulty going outside alone or going to the doctor's office?

This questionaire replaces the every ten year long form of the U.S. census. Instead of taking a census of everyone once every ten years, now they randomly mail this to people every year.

If you throw it away, then in 3 weeks you get another copy, delivered by Fed-X. If you still refuse to send it in, they begin a phone call campaign, calling you daily for a month or so to attempt to get you to answer the questions verbally. If you still fail to give them the answers, they come to your home. If you refuse to answer the door they leave a card saying you must call them about an urgent matter. If you don't, they return to your home over and over, and will go to your neighbor's home to get your cell phone numbers or any other info they can get out of your neighbor.

My question is, if you continue to refuse to cooperate, have any of you actually been charged and prosecuted for failing to comply with U.S. Code Title 13, sections 141, 193 and 221, which is the applicable code mandating you go along with this nonsense?

Rush
 
Rushie said:
Just got this thing.... if you have gotten it then you know what I am talking about. I have NO intention of answering all these inane, intrusive questions.
Click to expand...

Don't, your understanding below is accurate. This was a topic on Clark Howard's consumer warrior radio show this week. He dispises it, says not to answer beyond the legal requirement.

Rushie said:
I want to know what you did about it, specifically, if you did not tell them what they want to know, were you harassed, fined and jailed?....I know they will follow up with phone calls and personal visits, but if you continue to refuse to cooperate do they eventually give up or do they send the police to your home?
Click to expand...

Years ago (OK, a couple decades ago) my girlfriend got a summer job following up on folks who did not fill it out. Since she was a lovely, buxom early twenty-something knocking on strangers doors, she asked me to accompany her for security.

Basically, most folks had just forgotten and did not mind anwering then and there. The ones' who refused we thanked for their time and checked the address on the list. Nobody followed up or cared. She got paid by the contact, not by the result.

Rushie said:
By constitutional law, I must answer only how many people live in this house, but my understanding is I needn't give any other info, not even my name.
Click to expand...

That's about it.
Just don't shoot them when they come around , OK? ;) :goofy:
 
Dart said:
Don't, your understanding below is accurate. This was a topic on Clark Howard's consumer warrior radio show this week. He dispises it, says not to answer beyond the legal requirement.
Click to expand...

DANG! The one week I didn't listen to Clark! I wish I'd heard that because Clark is great about giving detailed advice how to handle stuff. Do you recall what exactly he said the "legal requirement" is? Because according to everything in the paperwork and on the census bureau's own website, and even in the Title 13 code, EVERYTHING is legally required.

I am stuck between three options:

1. respond only with name and age for each occupant, put "n/a" or "confidential" or some such in every other space

2. respond only with number of adults, number of children, same as above for the rest

3. do not return the survey at all

If I do 1 or 2 I will be supplying the minimum required by the Constitution, but some people say you will be harassed less aggressively if you don't return anything at all. Will I be legally safer replying with the minimum count? Or will I be legally safer not replying at all, so if worse came to worse, they cannot prove I ever received the form?
 
How many people live at that address. That's about all they're entitled to. Last census they wanted the race of each person in my household. I wrote "Human" in the blank. Never heard another word.
 
Hi Greg and Bill and everybody. I been busy but thought no better people to ask a tough question to than a bunch of intelligent independent minded pilots.
 
I think I would answer questions like "What time do you leave in the morning" with "Early enough to get to work on time" and "How much money do you make" with "Enough to live on." They don't need specific dollar amounts, and the government can go to hell if they want more info than that.

Why oh why couldn't I have been chosen?
 
Rushie said:
Hi Greg and Bill and everybody. I been busy but thought no better people to ask a tough question to than a bunch of intelligent independent minded pilots.
Click to expand...
Let us know if you find such a bunch, ok? :D
 
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