The government has been asking similar questions on the census for decades, it's not a new thing.In 1850 they started to enumerate members of the household individually instead of just head of household and age groups. Employment status, type of employment, medical questions, age at marriage, number of kids, year of immigration,parents birthplace, primary language, race, education, ownership of home, etc. I use the census for genealogy purposes, and am grateful for the insight it has given me into the lives of my ancestors. I have been able to use the census to find family graves, and reconnect with living family members. What I really get a little peeved at is when the questions were pretty obviously not answered by the family, likely a neighbor, who "guesstimated" the answers. 1900 is my favorite census, I get a birth month with that one. Of course, I have some ancestors who shared the sentiments of many on this thread, didn't trust the census enumerators or government, so would tend to disappear on census. Or lie. Which has caused me a lot of genealogy hair-pulling. Just thought to put a different perspective on all those snoopy questions.
I'm still not answering them. I will set five hundred dollars aside, just in case...