A question for the census

The census is derived from the following clause in the constitution:  “Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Number… The actual Enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct.”

Basically, the purpose is to make sure the number of representatives in the House is still sufficient, and that taxes are distributed to areas that need them.  If an area has, say, 100 more kids than it did 10 years ago, then more money needs to be sent to the public schools to pay for more teachers.  Without the census, there'd be no official way of knowing.

The census has only those two purposes and can't be used for anything else.  Only the U.S. Census Bureau has access to the forms (though the statistical results are published).  The FBI, ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and IRS cannot use the forms to track down anyone.  Even if the forms somehow fell into their possesion, it would be illegal to use them as evidence of any sort.  But we know that.  That's not my point.

The Census asks for age, sex and race.  I am curious why any of those matter.  Aren't we just counting people?

Well, age is important to know.  A lot of 20-30 year olds have different public (tax-funded) needs than 40-50 than 70-80, and needing to know how many are under 18 is also very important for the obvious reasons.

Sex is less important, but if we're willing to assume women mean potential children, then funding preschools (each census needs to cover the next 10 years) is the proper reaction.  And a man and woman living together can give the same result - but if they are 60 years old, perhaps kids aren't to be expected.  Is it sexist?  Sort of - but women can make babies and men cannot.  There is a purpose, however crude, to asking about sex.

However, I am curious why the census asks questions about race.  There is, or supposed to be, no difference between capabilities of those of a different race.  Whites and blacks and hispanics and Asians can accomplish the same goals, given equal opportunity.  That's the theory of diversity anyway.  Or: every race has certain strengths and weaknesses, and they all balance out so that no race is better than the others.  In any event, there's no difference in tax-funded needs.  All races use roads, need disaster relief, fire departments, a national military, public schools, etc.  So what's the point of asking?

Granted, there is no danger of being "caught" by admitting to a certain race, there is also no use for asking, and asking makes some people nervous, and then they don't answer the census at all, and then the whole area loses money and representation.  So why ask the question at all?  I understand the desire for statistics and it is good to have the information to compare to economic data to see the socio-economic conditions of certain areas, to compare it both with race populations and the past, to see if an area is becoming richer and if there is an ethnic migration.  But at the risk of getting no information seems stupid.

This is my favorite question.  It is question 8 and comes BEFORE the above question.  This question definately looks suspicious.  Consider that question 9 DOESN'T have Hispanic etc as an option.  It does make it look like the Census is making a distinction between Hispanics and every other race.  And given Hispanic/Latino/Spanish is just the proper way of sayng what "American purists" call "Illegal Immigrants" AKA "Mexicans," it's no wonder people are nervous.  Why area Hispanics given an entirely seperate question?  It's........ it's ridiculous!  Absolutely ridiculous.

If anyone wants to read all the question on the census, the site I used was http://2010.census.gov/2010census/how/interactive-form.php

James Thomas must be disbarred!