In case you didn’t notice the barrage of taxpayer funded radio, TV, newspaper and internet ads, it’s census time again.
Yes, census time, that time that comes once every ten years when the government spends hundreds of millions of dollars telling us how important it is that we return that all important, overly nosey questionnaire.
In fact, it’s so important that the government sent me a letter telling me it was going to send me the census form a full week before it actually sent the form. Then it sent a post card a few days after the form arrived reminding me that it had sent the form – which makes one wonder whether this was actually some sort of stimulus plan for the Postal Service.
Like almost everything our Founding Fathers created, the census was unique. Up until their time in world history, national head counts had been used almost exclusively for purposes of taxation or conscription for military service. They turned it into a tool to reallocate congressional districts and ensure that all Americans had equal representation in the House of Representatives. read more »
