crap article. Any building, neighborhood, community can be forced to comply with the Census. And the premise that Census enumerators are being fired if they don't file crap statistics and rush the process is just nonsense. There are good and bad workers in the Census as in any large undertaking, but my general impression as a Crew Leader for 5 operations was of a really dedicated group of people undertaking to provide the most accurate information we could find. Insinuation that it was politically motivated are just ridiculous. Get your heads out of your arses and complain about real problems.

those letters sent were to increase the awareness and likelihood of response to the mailed form. I know it seemed silly and wasteful, but if it helped get forms mailed in it would save serious $ by making it unneccesary to have a Census worker personally come out and conduct and interview.

I'm not sure about the FBI check, but the fingerprinting is new. Thank 9/11 for the increased monitoring of employees. Having been involved with the Census I would confirm that just the additional security steps needed now added a pretty penny to cost of the operation. The lack of cooperation with the Census may be at an all time high because of mistrust/dislike of the administration. I worked in Washington and Alaska and up north it was really a major job to get people to cooperate.
Very expensive having Census folk spending time tracking uncooperative people down......very expensive.

I totally agree with the concern over the runaway cost of this edition of the Census, but there are some misconceptions on some of the reason for spiraling expense. One of the simplest ways to cut Census cost would be if everyone mailed back the form they originally got in the mail. That would eliminate the $50 cost per Census form to have someone personally go out and find the household and conduct the interview. The cost spirals higher when you consider that often the residents are not home and multiple visits are required. It continues to spiral when you have folks that won't give Census info so more visits and looking for someone cooperative is needed. With the current climate of dissatisfaction with the administration, many people are not cooperating with the Census and this just drives the cost up more.