This is worth quoting here IMHO:
"However, even if you don't get fined for not filling out the census form, there are some good reasons you should do it anyway. Seats in the House of Representatives seats are apportioned by population, with the most populous states receiving the most seats. Federal and state governments rely on census data to budget for social welfare programs that assist the poor, elderly, disabled and veterans. Cities and private industry use demographic figures to plan new hospitals and housing developments, and to assess the need for new schools or new strip malls. So, not filling out the census form may cost you something in the long run."
In 2010 I just kept forgetting to fill out the census. My census guy left notes on my apartment door begging me to call him. Finally, one day, he literally popped out of the fucking bushes with the census form.
They missed me in 1990 and 2000, when I was unconventionally housed (living in the office).
>Note that the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984 has increased the fine for any criminal misdemeanor to as much as $5,000. In practice, though, no one has been prosecuted for not filling out the census since 1970, according to a 2014 Politifact article.
That article is wrong, and the fine is absolutely not $5,000. If that article were correct, then there would be no federal fines under $5,000 anywhere. This is misinformation that the census bureau likes to spread around to scare people. In face, the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984 applies only to criminal cases.
This means that the fine is actually $100.
I went through this rigmarole when I got one of those off-year census forms during the Obama administration, asking about what my family eats, how many toilets we have, etc. I refused to fill it out. A guy showed up at my door. He showed me the brochure that said it was mandatory, and what the potential fine was. The same $5,000 number was quoted. I told him I would not be participating in this program, and that his brochure was lying because this was not a criminal offense. He agreed it was not a criminal matter. And that was that.
One thing I’m curious about is, why does a country need to do this in the first place?
From the example I’m familiar with: the last ever census in Turkey was held in 2007. There on, there is now a live, real-time count of everyone in the country. Why doesn’t that work in the US?
Surely US is capable of it, but I wonder if the blockage is inertial, political or just not enough of a priority.
The US federal government has an exact, real-time count and location of every single person with a phone in the country due to universal bulk surveillance.
Cross-referenced with the subscriber records from wireless, cable, and utility companies, databases from data brokers that are fed by loyalty programs and supermarkets, and every bank or credit card swipe in real-time, they already have 100% of this data in far higher resolution than will ever be collected by the census. They know about your address updates even before you tell the DMV.
I will be ignoring the effort.
I didn't fill out the last census forms in protest of the longform census that year(in Canada) that asked for what I considered to be unnecessary information I didn't wish to divulge. Nobody that lived in the house filled one out. Nothing came of it. Census people showed up at the door every day for a while, but would leave after a bunch of knocking with no answer. I do normally fill them out though. For reference Canada has similar census laws to America.
Next national census in Poland happens in 2021 and also here, you can be fined or sent to prison, get non-custodial sentence by not participating or providing false answers; persons covered by census are obliged to participate. Those who by gathering answers for census surveys and processing data will gain any profits can be imprisoned for up to 5 years.
So far no one from my family was chosen; since fall of the Eastern bloc there were 2 censuses, in 2002 and 2011
tldr: nothing
(Can confirm, was Census enumerator. You probably will get an in-person attempt from a very-low-paid enumerator, though.)
If you live in a Republican district/state you should definitely refuse to fill out the census.
watch "The Census: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver" on this topic.
I got randomly selected for the long one in 2010. There were several questions I was not able to answer but providing incorrect information is a crime and not answering is a crime. So I did nothing. They sent one or two threatening follow ups. Then an in-person enumerator showed up and ran me through the short-form questions only, which was fine.
Nothing. Nothing happens. You may get an in-person visit, and if you blow them off, nothing also happens.
As with voting, it only encourages them. They are passionate about getting you to participate because they want the appearance of legitimacy, so you get obvious fear-and-guilt-prop like this.
The US census was infamously used to assist in rounding up Americans of specific ethnic backgrounds for concentration camps.
It would go a long way to easing people’s minds if they had some way to guarantee that this could not happen again. I realize there is value in gathering attributes beyond just “one person”, but storing these attributes in a way that can be connected to addresses seems seriously problematic.