Government Wastes Millions on Pre-Census Mailer
Yesterday I received a letter from the United States Department of Commerce:
“About one week from now, you will receive a 2010 Census form in the mail.”
Are you kidding? I mean, thanks for the heads up, but why not just send the form?
Assuming every one of America’s 114 million households received this letter, and the Commerce Department has a special 50% discounted rate with their friends at the Post Office, they just wasted $25 million of OUR money! What’s worse, the figure is probably closer to $30 million given the Postal Service’s recent inability to operate profitably.
Unbelievable. And I’m not even counting the Census TV commercials, one of which aired during the Super Bowl. Will any of these tactics really improve response rate?
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March 9th, 2010 at 8:07 am
Government wastes money? Shocker.
March 9th, 2010 at 12:51 pm
Dude, the purpose of the letter wasn’t actually to notify you that the census letter is coming. It’s a common (CHEAP) tactic used to narrow and refine the actual mailing list. Emphasis on CHEAP. I suppose they could send some bodies out and about to doublecheck all the addresses and the occupants before they mail the census forms. But that would not be CHEAP.
March 9th, 2010 at 12:59 pm
Hmm originally I thought the same thing, but a couple points make me think otherwise. First, the letter was addressed to “RESIDENT” and not me personally. And second, given only one week of lead-time, that’s not enough time for the Census Bureau to receive back the undeliverables and scrub their master database. If the intent was to cheaply doublecheck addresses, they didn’t allow themselves enough time before mailing the real forms.
March 10th, 2010 at 8:11 am
I hadn’t gotten one yet so I was hopeful that it wasn’t a blanket mailing, but no, it arrived yesterday.