Mar 13 2010
How Much Money Was Wasted on This?
I went out to my mailbox a few days ago and found this letter from the Census Bureau. I think to myself, “Ah, the Census is here,” but no. To my dismay, I opened the envelope to find a letter sent to me from the Census Bureau informing me that they will be sending me the Census form in the coming weeks. Yes, they sent me a letter to tell me they will be sending me a letter. Assuming they did this for every resident in the country, I can only imagine how many zeroes were involved in the cost of sending these out. Perhaps, it was really a back door bail out for the U.S. Postal Service. We do know how the Federal government loves those.
I heard the other day that the cost was 85 million because after the census there will be a follow up letter reminding us to mail them in. I still wonder how long a company that had to turn a profit (telephone,electricity etc.) would survive using these wasteful tactics.
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Blood vessels burst in my head every time one of those stupid, nonsensical commercials the census is using this year. Y’know, the ones starring enviro-freak Ed Begley, Jr. that are supposed to be so uncool they’re way cool. Does anyone have any idea what the f*ck those commercials are about? How are they supposed to convince people to fill out the census? Why was one of these absurd ads put in the Super Bowl with taxpayer dollars? Why does the person who approved those commercials still have a job?
These are the things I think about at night as I try to sleep. That and pizza rolls. I love pizza rolls.
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Apparently you guys didn’t hear Patrick McHenry on Keith Larson’s show the other day. As he so aptly explained, the money isn’t being wasted bc if people don’t send their census back in the govt has to spend even MORE money to send agents to people’s homes in an attempt to gather the data. This is why he sent out his own additional reminder to his constituents. Not as a political ploy, but to help save money in the long run. Maybe if all you bloggers weren’t so cynical you’d see the obvious benefits of hiring D-list actors to do commercials about the census, bc it’s going to end up saving us all a lot of money. Except for all the money were spending to save money. We won’t get that money back. But that doesn’t matter bc were going to save a lot of money in the long run. At least we think so. But we can’t really prove it. But just stop being so cynical and trust McHenry and everyone else in Washington who is just trying to save us money in the long run.
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