The Census

I got my Census form yesterday. Did you? It’s 10 questions long. What do you think of it?
Some people are upset that the form lists the word “negro” among possible racial choices. (Read about it here.) But by far, the biggest objections come from the far right and have to do with the supposed constitutionality of the questions asked. (Read about it here.)

The Census short form contains 10 questions, but these folks think that’s “about nine questions too long.” They cite Article 1, Section 2 of the Constitution, which empowers Congress to make an “actual enumeration” of Americans.
Of course, they ignore the rest of that section, which also gives Congress the power to do this, “in such manner as they shall by law direct.”
I’ll have a lot more to say about this in my Sunday column, but the best way to refute this ridiculous argument is to look at Census questions through the ages. Click here to look at Census forms all the way back to 1790. Even that year, when George Washington was president, you had to report your general age, whether you were male or female and whether you were free or a slave. Was that three questions too many?
By 1890, the form was 30 questions long and asked such things as whether you had a mortgage and whether you had a chronic disease. The Census was trying to get a snapshot of the nation. The aggregate data could be used for community planning or to divide public resources.
Now we have 10 questions, with a tiny percentage of the population getting a longer, more detailed form. We also have strict laws against using any specific answers for any purposes other than collecting general data.
The biggest danger of the Census isn’t the questions it asks. It is that politics might get control of the head-count, which is used to assign House representation in the states. It is that minority or low-income populations get under-counted because some people are too suspicious of government workers to answer.
But fears about the questions? That is simply a controversy without substance.