Link: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601039&sid=aJkhXxGLizJU

I almost missed this article from Caroline Baum about our silly multicultural census form. What is really absurd is not so much that they have their noses sniffing around privacy issues, but that the only thing they seem to care about is stuff that shouldn’t matter: race, sex, hispanic origin, and age. (Well, maybe age should matter). Disgusting.

Another thing I noticed when filling out the form is the self-promoting slip they sent with it, urging everyone of the importance of the census to local communities because it determines levels of federal funding for schools, hospitals, and other social services. It nearly begged the respondent to fudge the numbers to get more tax dollars sent their way. Nowhere did it ask the respondent to tell the truth. I guess that honesty would be a “process” formality irrelevant to the end goals of policymakers, whatever they are.