"I'm tired of this invasion of privacy crap disguised as a "census"."
Exactly!
Anything else they can go pound sand.
I figured we were "randomly" selected because I didn't bow to the original census-taker. I told him politely how many people lived in the house and politely left it at that. He then proceeded to take an inordinate amount of time parked in our driveway, filling out the rest of the form for us, or doing some other paperwork to make it look like our behavior was being documented. What a sleeze. He obviously wanted to flaunt his disregard for private property as well, since he could have done his business parked on the street. I wondered what training these guys received.
Anyway, back to the survey. Within a couple of weeks I was receiving messages on the answering machine by some census "official", insisting that we needed to return her calls. I've never had any need to screen calls via an answering machine first, so on a couple of occasions the woman got through to me.
I responded to her in the same polite manner as I do telemarketers, saying, "We do not do telemarking, polls, marketing research, surveys, etc., so please put us on your do not call list". As she kept rambling, I hung up.
This happened a couple more times, and she left messages a couple more times, and I had finally had it with this harrasser. That's exactly what she was.
I finally remained on the line and told her that she had no business harrassing us, and that we had requested to be put on a do not call list (knowing full well that the government hypocrits exempt themselves from its own laws). Oh, but she was from the government, so that wasn't applicable. And so I further explained, that if a telemarketer for a private company had been doing what she was doing, I would have legal recourse.
Her demeanor turned from one of attempting to "positively" encourage compliance, to threats of "required by law" or else "the fine" for not submitting to her demands. I then asked her what was the fine... or rather, the fee required for me to be left alone. LOL, the stuttering and fumbling on the other end of the line was priceless.
She couldn't tell me what the fine was. I asked incredulously, "You have been working there for 20 years (this was part of her sales pitch to appear trustworthy), and you can't tell me what the fine is?" I had a few choice opinions of her that I then shared. Needless to say, the conversation ended shortly thereafter, and I never heard from her again.
The arrogance of these career government despots is unreal.
"REQUIRED BY LAW"... just a manipulation tactic foisted upon the law-abiding, to force unquestioning compliance.