Comments on: Government Wastes Millions on Pre-Census Mailer

By: Jody

Jody — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 16:11:17 +0000

I hadn’t gotten one yet so I was hopeful that it wasn’t a blanket mailing, but no, it arrived yesterday.

By: Nick

Nick — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 20:59:06 +0000

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.

By: Di

Di — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 20:51:43 +0000

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.

By: Mike

Mike — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 16:07:06 +0000

Government wastes money? Shocker.