The Census Doesn't Count. Or Is It The Government That Can't Count.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/census/2010-02-17-Census-software_N.htm
Census software plagued by defects

The government census is very important. The government tells us so. The government needs the census for long range planning. The census happens every 10 years.

Don't you think that 10 years should be more than enough time to create a plan to manage the census and have it ready to go? If you do think the government is capable and competent to do long range planning for the census (or anything else), then you are sadly mistaken.

The software being written to manage the 2010 census will not be ready (if ever) until long after the counting is over. It currently has many major bugs. It will not be able to keep track of the people wandering around the countryside asking questions. It will not be able to tabulate the results that are turned in by the census takers.

But don't worry about the incompetence of the managers of the census. They haven't stopped at screwing up the software.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100216/ap_on_bi_ge/us_census_spending_waste
Millions wasted on census as head count approaches

The government is also wasting money on the census takers.

Before starting the census, the government pays workers to wander the streets to confirm street addresses. Of course with typical government efficiency, the government ended up paying 25% more than they estimated it would cost (almost $100 million more).

Next, the government needs to pay workers to wander the streets to ask people to fill out the census forms (if they haven't already voluntarily filled them out and mailed them back). The government is already wasting millions training people to be census takers who are not qualified to be census takers. The government is wasting millions paying census working to sit around and wait until the government decides if they want to use them. The government is wasting millions on travel reimbursement for people who either have not traveled, or would have been unable to do the travel they claimed they did in the time they claimed it took them to travel.

But you shouldn't worry about waste. The government ALWAYS knows what it is doing. Why would the government use the same method for counting the census that they did 200 years ago? Why would the government NOT use national databases of telephone numbers, tax return filers, drivers licenses, ... instead of sending people door to door?

p.s. The people who have had 10 years to plan for a census and still manage to get it wrong are the same people who in a matter of days wrote a Health Care Deform bill that is supposed to manage health care for decades to come.