Beware of
Census Takers Bearing Gifts
by Wendy
McElroy
The census form that arrives at every American household in
mid-March is a massive violation of privacy rights. Moreover, it
has little to do with the purposes for which the census was
intended. The Constitution provides that representation in the
House and direct taxation are to be apportioned among the States
according to their "respective Numbers" -- excluding
untaxed Indians and including slaves as 3/5ths of a human being.
For these purposes, an Enumeration was to occur every ten years.
The first census (1790) consisted of six questions: the name of
the head of the family and the number of people in the household,
broken down into the categories of 'free white male' 16 or older,
'free white male' under 16, 'free white female,' and 'slaves.'
Two centuries later, an estimated one in six households will
receive a 'long' Census 2000 form with dozens of questions and
subquestions. For example, "Last week did this person do ANY
work for either pay or profit?"(Emphasis in original. A
sample form is available at http://www.census.gov/dmd/www/pdf/d-61b.pdf.)
"At what location...?" All "wages, salary,
commissions, bonuses or tips" must be accounted for. Indeed,
all income, including interest, dividends, rental income, and
welfare must be listed. The form demands to know the value of
your house and estate. Further, the long form inquires into the
citizenship status of each person enumerated.
Compliance is mandatory.
Thus far, census controversy has revolved around two issues.
First, all forms require people to be identified by race and this
raises the specter of discrimination. Second, the Clinton
Administration wishes to combine conventional counting methods
with probability sampling. Democrats claim that inner-city
blacks, other minorities and immigrants - groups from which they
derive support - are under-enumerated. Republicans counter that
sampling violates the Constitution. They argue that, if
bureaucrats are allowed to create 'virtual' people, then the
census will be used to justify massive funding of the inner city
at the expense of other areas. Moreover, Democrats could use the
census to increase their representation in the House.
Two important issues are being lost: 1) privacy rights and 2)
the original intention of the census.
The Census Bureau assuages anxiety about privacy by making it
illegal to disclose information from all but ancient census
forms. This allegedly prevents data from being shared with other
agencies such as the Internal Revenue Service or Immigration and
Naturalization. Alas, Government assurances have a short shelf
life. The original Social Security cards explicitly stated that
they were not for identification purposes. Today, the SSN is
virtually a national I.D. card. The government is constructing a
huge national database with the goal of including every American.
It is criminally nave to assume that bureaucrats can resist the
temptation of dipping into the rich information on census forms.
Why has the census form - even one in six -- expanded? The
justification: Census 2000 data will be used to distribute
approximately 150 to 180 billion tax-dollars for items such as
schools and highways. Thus, each state will push hard for
compliance in order to boost their funding. This is the gift that
census takers bear. The price is privacy.
How did the census evolve from its modest roots into a weapon
of social engineering? At the beginning of the 19th century,
statisticians began to urge the federal government to expand the
type of data collected. The 1850 census was the first to collect
"social statistics" such as wages and the value of
property. The 1940 census has been called "the first
contemporary census." The foregoing captures some of the
dates, but not the spirit that has transformed the American
census. The spirit lies in growth of the American government over
two centuries into a Leviathan state that intrudes into every
aspect of daily life and tries to skim every dollar produced.
What if you simply tear up the form? By early April, the
Census Bureau will probably mail replacement forms to
non-responding households. In late April to June, census takers
will personally knock on such doors. Although this is
intimidating, non-compliance in the past has gone virtually
unpunished.
Census 2000 may be different. The government has 'proudly'
declared it to be "the largest peace-time operation" it
has undertaken. This is not peace. The census is a declaration of
war on American privacy.
www.american-partisan.com
