Don't Cooperate With the Census

[archerships]

When the US Government rounded up Japanese-Americans in 1942, they used the "supposedly private" census data to tell the soldiers how many Japanese lived on each block. The Census Bureau handed out the data needed to put them into prison camps or otherwise be harassed. Reams of information came from the "strictly confidential" census. In 1943, a direct tabulation of "Every Japanese person living in Washington, DC", including name, address, sex, age, marital status, citizenship, profession, and employer, all taken directly from individual census records, was provided to the Secret Service. Throughout the war, individuals "of interest" to the FBI and Secret Service were looked up, and their private information was released for purposes of government harassment.

via toad.com

"According to the General Accounting Office, one of the most frequent ways city governments use census information is to detect illegal two-family dwellings. An American Planning Association survey reported that housing code enforcement was a key benefit of census data for local governments.

For instance, Montgomery County, MD, and Pullman, Washington, use census data on the nubmer of housing units in a structure to check compliance with zoning regulations. The Long Island Planning Board uses census "block counts ... to estimate the extent of illegal two-family home conversions," according to a June 27, 1986 board letter. Such "illegal" two-family dwellings are pervasive on Long Island, according to Anthony Downs of the Brookings Institution. Such crackdowns are especially unfortunate because, as George Sternlieb of Rutgers University notes "The biggest source of good-size rental apartments in America is the illegal conversion of single-family houses."

Via Joel Grus.

Posted via web from crasch's posterous

Comments

[olegvolk.livejournal.com]

The best way of dealing with the census is to consider the source. The Feds are untrustworthy and therefore deserve zero cooperation in anything. Their game may be non-obvious but blanket non-cooperation would be the best course. It's no different from any other con game: the only way not to lose is to avoid participating.

[cramer.livejournal.com]

except failure to cooperate is a felony. (of course, I lie about the unimportant parts.)