Posted on 06/22/2014 7:18:16 AM PDT by johniegrad
I have received the American Community Survey and several post cards encouraging me to complete it. Having not received this before, I Googled it and found that it isn't sent out to the full populace like the Census is. It also appears to be a longer form of the Census selectively distributed in years other than Census years.
There are a lot of questions that I don't feel much like answering and I stopped when asked about the market value of my home, my insurance costs, and some others. Apparently, if I don't return the survey, I am subject to a fine and/or a call from a Census Bureau employee.
I used to not concern myself with these things and would just fill them out. Then I joined FreeRepublic and became suspicious of everyone and everything. Only slightly just kidding.
Throw it away. The threats they imply are worthless. The Constitutional requirements for Census are pretty explicit. Enumeration does not mean total relinquishment of private information.
I had a woman in my subdivision who got a Census job and she hounded me on multiple occasions about answering questions. I always told her I was dizzy or sick or had to go for a doctor’s appointment for my hypertension. She finally left me alone
I used to not concern myself with these things and would just fill them out. Then I joined FreeRepublic and became suspicious of everyone and everything. Only slightly just kidding.
If you don’t return it properly filled out, you will likely be visited or harrassed by the NSA, IRS, ATF, EPA........and the DNC.
Just drop a hint that you are a transgendered lesbian parapalegic with an Hispanic surname and that you have to take care of your illegal alien nieces and nephews as soon as ICE delivers them from the border crossing holding station. The Census folks should be able to make an exception. Heck, they might even send you a check!
I got one.
I ignored it.
They sent me followup reminders.
I ignored them too.
They continued to press me and one day there was a female waiting at my door when I came home. She asked me about it and I feigned total ignorance. She asked my name and I declined to answer. She went away.
They sent another followup.
I ignored that too.
They sent another guy out to the house. He TOLD me that they expected me to submit the form.
I replied, “Oh that. I already sent it in” (lie).
They sent one more reminder which I ignored and then they gave up.
What survey? (Round file material)
I received & ignored it.
Got 3 more in the mail -,ignored that.
At one point they got my mother-in-law on the phone & she gave them some vague answers that appears to have satisfied them
Wife and I escorted the ‘census taker’ off our property a couple of years ago. He walked around a security gate and two No Trespassing signs.
I told him I would call the sheriff if he returned.
He didn’t.
American Community Survey on FR
I refused to answer and they started sending people to the door. They were all polite and non-threatening. One day I was doing remodeling project and couldn't get off the ladder to tell the jerk at the front door off, so my wife answered the door. She's usually mild-mannered and accommodating about stuff like this, but even she got fed up and told the person we weren't going to divulge more info (all the while I'm screaming at the guy from my ladder perch about intrusion of privacy, Constitutional requirements for surveys, etc). The person at the door was cool as a cucumber (I was quite impressed by that), took the info, left, and we never heard from them again.
What's curious is why they keep up this charade when the NSA knows all this information and a lot more about all of us. Why doesn't the Census Bureau just ask the NSA for the data?
In 2000 and 2010, I didn’t answer any questions beyond the number of adults in my home. One census taker got angry, the other shrugged his shoulders and left.
I’d like to think I would not respond to the invasive survey.
We got one several years back(is it the one that asks how many bathrooms, how many bedrooms, how many people live there, etc?) and only put name rank and ss# and returned it after a VERY long time. We got a visit from some poor gal from the census office. I felt kinda bad for her when she finally left our place. Standing in the driveway in FL in August for a long time and not getting quick straight answers tends to dull ones enthusiasm. :>}
I received one of these years ago while a resident of Illinois. It was trashed along with the other junk mail. Guess they’re still looking for me?
It seems to me that the only way to get into real trouble with this is to provide false information. If you ignore it, they may hassle you but can do little else.
Why doesn’t the Census Bureau just ask the NSA for the information?
Knowledge is power and the NSA isn’t going to dilute their power by spreading that information around.
Tell them that you have surviphobia and that further discussion or even seeing the form will cause you severe mental anguish. Stop tormenting me. But do provide your name and employee id number in case I need to file a complaint.
Sorry if this has been covered already in the many replies, lot of which I agree with,. It takes about 4 months to get rid of them. I think it’s the nature of the way the hounders they send around are paid. They are contractors looking for some extra bucks and get a bounty for completing a survey. They start showing up about the third month. They come to your house, leave messages at your door; call you up, walk around the back of your house to see if you are home. We ignored them ,didn’t speak to them. After a month or two, they were given a new list of people to harass and stopped showing up as it wasn’t worth their time or effort to bother us any more.
I didn’t answer it.
They sent a gal to ask about it.
I told her I would answer her questions with one simple word, REFUSE...
While not an option on the actual survey, apparently you can simple state...REFUSE... to answer.
No one has ever been jailed or fined for refusing the survey.
I'll just post what is on the card in BOLD print...
"Now is the time to complete this survey if you have not already done so"
Your response to this survey is required by U.S. law, if you do not respond, a Census Bureau interviewer may contact you to complete the survey.
There problem as far as I'm concerned is the survey was not addressed to me personally but addressed to RESIDENT, and everything I get addressed resident goes straight in the trash as with all junk mail.
If they do show up at my door, and I have the time, I will answer only those questions I think do not violate my right to privacy, or I'll just tell them to go away.
Return it as required, just don’t answer the questions.
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