54

The Right to Be Let Alone: When the Government Wants to Know All Your Business

John Whitehead

“Experience teaches us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government’s purposes are beneficent.”
Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis

There was a time when the census was just a head count. That is no longer the case.

The American Community Survey (ACS), sent to about 3.5 million homes every year, is the byproduct of a government that believes it has the right to know all of your personal business.

If you haven’t already received an ACS, it’s just a matter of time.

A far cry from the traditional census, which is limited to ascertaining the number of persons living in each dwelling, their ages and ethnicities, the ownership of the dwelling and telephone numbers, the ACS contains some of the most detailed and intrusive questions ever put forth in a census questionnaire.

At 28 pages (with an additional 16-page instruction packet), these questions concern matters that the government simply has no business knowing, including questions relating to respondents’ bathing habits, home utility costs, fertility, marital history, work commute, mortgage, and health insurance, among other highly personal and private matters.

For instance, the ACS asks how many persons live in your home, along with their names and detailed information about them such as their relationship to you, marital status, race and their physical, mental and emotional problems, etc. The survey also asks how many bedrooms and bathrooms you have in your house, along with the fuel used to heat your home, the cost of electricity, what type of mortgage you have and monthly mortgage payments, property taxes and so on.

And then the survey drills down even deeper.

The survey demands to know how many days you were sick last year, how many automobiles you own and the number of miles driven, whether you have trouble getting up the stairs, and what time you leave for work every morning, along with highly detailed inquiries about your financial affairs. And the survey demands that you violate the privacy of others by supplying the names and addresses of your friends, relatives and employer.

The questionnaire also demands that you give other information on the people in your home, such as their educational levels, how many years of school were completed, what languages they speak and when they last worked at a job, among other things.

Individuals who receive the ACS must complete it or be subject to monetary penalties.

Although no reports have surfaced of individuals actually being penalized for refusing to answer the survey, the potential fines that can be levied for refusing to participate in the ACS are staggering. For every question not answered, there is a $100 fine. And for every intentionally false response to a question, the fine is $500. Therefore, if a person representing a two-person household refused to fill out any questions or simply answered nonsensically, the total fines could range from upwards of $10,000 and $50,000 for noncompliance.

While some of the ACS’ questions may seem fairly routine, the real danger is in not knowing why the information is needed, how it will be used by the government or with whom it will be shared.

In an age when the government has significant technological resources at its disposal to not only carry out warrantless surveillance on American citizens but also to harvest and mine that data for its own dubious purposes, whether it be crime-mapping or profiling based on whatever criteria the government wants to use to target and segregate the populace, the potential for abuse is grave.

As such, the ACS qualifies as a government program whose purpose, while sold to the public as routine and benign, raises significant constitutional concerns.

The Rutherford Institute has received hundreds of inquiries from individuals who have received the ACS and are not comfortable sharing such private, intimate details with the government or are unsettled by the aggressive tactics utilized by Census Bureau agents seeking to compel responses to ACS questions.

The following Q&A is provided as a resource to those who want to better understand their rights in respect to the ACS.

Q:  What kind of questions are contained in the ACS?

A:  The ACS contains questions that go far beyond typical census questions about the number of individuals within the household and their age, race, and sex. The survey combines intrusive questions with highly detailed inquiries about your financial affairs. Furthermore, the questionnaire also demands that recipients provide information about their family and other  people in their home, such as their educational levels, how many years of school were completed, what languages they speak, when they last worked at a job, and when occupants of your home are away from the house.

Q:  How will this information be used?

A:  The Census Bureau states that information from this survey is used to assist a wide variety of entities, from federal, state and local governments to private corporations, nonprofit organizations, researchers and public advocacy groups. The Bureau lists 35 different categories of questions on its website and offers an explanation on how the information is to be used.  For 12 of those categories, the information is used to assist private corporations.  For another 22, the information is used to aid advocacy groups, and in nine of those cases, the Census Bureau states that the responses will be used by advocacy groups to “advocate for policies that benefit their groups,” including advocacy based on age, race, sex, and marital status. Thus, information obtained through the ACS is not simply used to inform government policy in a neutral manner, but is also being provided to private actors for the purpose of promoting corporate and/or political agendas.

One concern raised by the Brookings Institute is the use of ACS information by law enforcement for  “crime mapping,” a surveillance tool used to predict crime and preemptively target certain neighborhoods for policing. It is “most effective” when “analysts can see the relationship between various types of criminal incidents (e.g., homicides, drug dealing) and neighborhood characteristics (risk factors such as poverty, population density, and vacant housing), pinpoint where crimes are most likely to occur (hot spots), and focus police resources accordingly.” The Brookings Institute notes that because the ACS provides data every year, rather than every ten years, crime mapping is more effective and cheaper.

Q:  Are my responses kept confidential?

A:  While the Census Bureau claims that an individual’s information will be kept strictly confidential, it does require a recipient to put their name on the survey, ostensibly for the purpose of asking follow-up questions in the event of missing or incomplete answers. This means your answers could be linked to you even if it is forbidden by law to share your individual responses.

Q:  Am I required by law to fully complete the American Community Survey?

A:  Federal law makes it mandatory to answer all questions on the ACS. A refusal to answer any question on the ACS or giving an intentionally false answer is a federal offense. The Census Bureau also maintains that responding to the ACS is mandatory and that recipients are legally obligated to answer all questions.

Q:  Is there a penalty for refusing to answer American Community Survey questions?

A:  The law requiring answers to the ACS also provides that a person who fails to answer “shall be fined not more than $100.” The actual fine for a refusal to complete the ACS could be much greater because a failure to respond to certain ACS questions could be considered a separate offense subject to the $100 fine.

Q:  Has the government prosecuted persons for refusing to answer the American Community Survey?

A:  While The Rutherford Institute has been made aware of Census Bureau agents engaging in harassing tactics and threatening behavior, to date, we are unaware of the Census Bureau having levied any financial penalties for non-compliance with the ACS. However, a refusal to answer the survey violates the letter of the law and a prosecution might be brought if the government decides to adopt a policy to do so.

Q:  How does the Census Bureau typically ensure that people complete the survey?

A:  Those who do not answer the ACS risk repeated overtures—by mail, by phone and in person—from Census Bureau employees seeking to compel a response. Typically, the Census Bureau will telephone those who do not respond to the survey and may visit their homes to coerce the targets to respond.

The Census Bureau boasts a 97% response rate to the survey via these methods, but critics argue this constitutes harassment. One recipient who did complete the survey but whose answers were misplaced by the Census Bureau wrote about his experience. First, a Census Bureau employee left a note at his apartment asking him to contact her. When he did, the employee asked him to allow her into his home. When he refused, the employee “turned up twice unannounced at my apartment, demanding entry, and warning me of the fines I would face if I didn’t cooperate.” Only after he filed a complaint with the Census Bureau did the agency realize he had actually completed the survey, thus ending its attempts to enter his home.

Q:  Is this an unconstitutional invasion of privacy?

A:  There are significant and legitimate questions concerning the authority of the government to require, under threat of prosecution and penalty, that persons answer questions posed by the ACS. The ACS is not part of the enumeration required by Article I of the Constitution, and that constitutional provision only applies to a census for purposes of counting the number of people in each state. As noted, the ACS seeks much more information than the number of persons in a household.

In other contexts, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that citizens have no obligation to answer questions posed by the government and are free to refuse to do so. This same principle could apply to questions posed by ACS agents.  However, because the government has not brought a prosecution for a refusal to respond to the ACS, the question of a person’s right to refuse has not yet been decided by a court.

Q:  What are my options for objecting to the ACS survey as an intrusion on my Fourth Amendment rights?

A:  If you receive notice that you have been targeted to respond to the ACS and you desire to assert your right of privacy, you can voice those objections and your intent not to respond to the ACS by writing a letter to the Census Bureau. The Rutherford Institute has developed a form letter that you may use in standing up against the government’s attempt to force you to disclose personal information.

If you are contacted by Census Bureau employees, either by telephone or in person, demanding your response, you can assert your rights by politely, but firmly, informing the employee that you believe the ACS is an improper invasion of your privacy, that you do not intend to respond and that they should not attempt to contact you again. Be sure to document any interactions you have with Bureau representatives for your own files.

If you believe you are being unduly harassed by a Census Bureau employee, either by telephone or in person, it is in your best interest to carefully document the time, place and manner of the incidents and file a complaint with the U.S. Census Bureau.

Remember, nothing is ever as simple or as straightforward as the government claims.

As I make clear in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People and in its fictional counterpart The Erik Blair Diaries, any attempt by the government to encroach upon the citizenry’s privacy rights or establish a system by which the populace can be targeted, tracked and singled out must be met with extreme caution.

While government agents can approach, speak to and even question citizens without violating the Fourth Amendment, Americans should jealously guard what Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis referred to as the constitutional “right to be let alone.”

Constitutional attorney and author John W. Whitehead is founder and president of The Rutherford Institute. His book Battlefield America: The War on the American People (SelectBooks, 2015) is available online at www.amazon.com. Whitehead can be contacted at [email protected]

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Michael57DE
Michael57DE
Mar 31, 2023 2:12 PM

I received one of these census questionnaires. I threw it in the trash.

Rob Polans
Rob Polans
Mar 23, 2023 10:24 PM

National Divorce solves all of this.

Rhys Jaggar
Rhys Jaggar
Mar 21, 2023 4:14 PM

If I were confronted with this I’d say: ‘I’m happy to consider answering this after all US Government criminals liable for mass murder have received judicial sentence’.

Tough and drives to the heart of the organised crime syndicate that is the US Deep State.

Of course, the USA hasn’t yet been charged with war crimes by the ICC, twenty years after they committed them in Iraq. The USA and Israel refuse to allow such pursuit of real justice….

So expecting domestic justice for Biden, Fauci, Fates et al is perhaps fanciful.

But nothing attempted, nothing gained….

May Hem
May Hem
Mar 19, 2023 9:10 PM

For those interested in intelligent astrology, this lady gives very clear explanation of the big changes coming up, especially this month, April 2023 – and more.

Vagabard
Vagabard
Mar 19, 2023 7:12 PM

Of course the government would already know the answers to the survey questions anyway (maybe not the bathing habits). Or at least where to look. It’s fairly inconceivable in the modern era that they wouldn’t.

So then the natural question arises: why ask questions that you already know the answer to?

2 possible reasons imho (there may be others):

Firstly, as a lie detector test. To flag up discrepancies between what someone says about themselves and what is known (or considered) to be true.

And secondly, to give citizens the sense that they are either revealing valuable information to someone that doesn’t know it already, or that by withholding information they are somehow stopping the State from knowing it. Both of which would have psychological value for the citizen-State relationship

mgeo
mgeo
Mar 20, 2023 4:22 AM
Reply to  Vagabard

As the subverted legislature has approved this, it is not much of a stretch to make it a part of the census. Also, it is another means of extortion.

The Coming Revolution
The Coming Revolution
Mar 20, 2023 2:08 PM
Reply to  Vagabard

A third possibility maybe that the apparatus of the State is at every corner threatened by the loss of a number of its functions and the subsequent slowdown of currency flowing and rising unemployment in the public sector. It jumps at every opportunity for getting busy and appearing useful, at the cost sometimes of concocting issues that give it busy-ness to justify its existence as the giant it is.

Brian Neil
Brian Neil
Mar 19, 2023 6:39 PM

Every PERSON must fill in the form.
To understand: A PERSON legal definition is a corporation. Your capitalised fictional identity NAMED PERSON must fill in the form. A living man/woman needs to do nothing.
The government only has authority over your legal fiction. Tell then to kcuf off.

May Hem
May Hem
Mar 19, 2023 9:33 PM
Reply to  Brian Neil

A “person” or “citizen” is defined as a slave under roman/maritime law. To be free, you call yourself a “living woman” or a “living man”.

Thomas Frey
Thomas Frey
Mar 19, 2023 4:11 PM

“The most terrifying force of death, comes from the hands of Men who wanted to be left Alone. They try, so very hard, to mind their own business and provide for themselves and those they love. They resist every impulse to fight back, knowing the forced and permanent change of life that will come from it. They know, that the moment they fight back, their lives as they have lived them, are over. The moment the Men who wanted to be left alone are forced to fight back, it is a form of suicide. They are literally killing off who they used to be. Which is why, when forced to take up violence, these Men who wanted to be left alone, fight with unholy vengeance against those who murdered their former lives. They fight with raw hate, and a drive that cannot be fathomed by those who are merely play-acting at politics and terror. TRUE TERROR will arrive at these people’s door, and they will cry, scream, and beg for mercy… but it will fall upon the deaf ears of the Men who just wanted to be left alone.”
– Author Unkown

Paul Vonharnish
Paul Vonharnish
Mar 19, 2023 3:42 PM

I was pestered several times by ACS bullshit letters last year. Their terrorist threats are a form of monetary extortion (see $100 fine). The threat is terrorism, and is illegal. Census violation fines are not prosecuted for obvious reasons…

Article I of the Constitution only applies to a census for the purpose of counting the number of people in each state. As noted, the ACS seeks much more information than the number of persons in a household, so tell them to fuck off…

George Mc
George Mc
Mar 19, 2023 1:54 PM

Meanwhile the mysterious illnesses continue to pile up.

George Ezra has cancelled gigs after being left “incredibly unwell”, according to his management.

He’s been diagnosed by a doctor as having “acute vertigo”

Well he’s such a tall chap you see.

And I guess his fans must be tall too going by one comment,

“Oh dear! I’ve had that vertigo feeling, it’s awful. Feel better soon!.”

Lost in a dark wood
Lost in a dark wood
Mar 19, 2023 1:30 PM

We are in an existential war against a global, totalitarian, collectivist ideology known as “Public Health”. There is no “individualism”, no “liberty”, no “private”, no “privacy”, no “law”, no “due process”. All of those concepts have been abolished.

Neil DeGrasse Tyson on “Collective Health”

https://rumble.com/v24xlp4-pbd-and-neil-degrasse-tyson-duke-it-out-on-the-morality-of-forcing-covid-in.html

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/dystopian-roots-californias-covid-19-misinformation-law
Authored by Douglas Eckenrood via The Epoch Times,
Jan 13, 2023

Unfortunately, the California Legislatures’ penchant to rely on questionable medical “consensus” is nothing new. During the 1920s, California adopted “model laws,” in which law enforcement conducted the proactive arrest of women suspected to have sexually transmitted diseases—all in the name of public health. Literal law enforcement sweeps, arrests, and forced gynecological exams would happen with no probable cause needed.

California relied on the U.S. Attorney General’s published opinion that these proactive public health efforts were constitutional and that the public’s interest trumped individual liberty. One of the reasons that this unbelievable and sick overreach is even known is that during a particular morality sweep, of the 22 women arrested and inspected that day, two of the arrestees were sisters, one of whom was Margaret Hennessy. The wife of a Standard Oil manager, she was recovering from influenza and was out for some fresh air with her sister, which was a common practice in that day.

Mrs. Hennessy had the courage to go to the news media and let her outrage be known, which should be an example to all of us. California’s “morality policy” using public heath concerns to expand the power to investigate, detain, and arrest individuals was illegal then and is still illegal now.

The first step in combating authoritarian overreach is not debating what or why they are doing something. It’s making the government identify where their authority to impose a mandate or new law comes from and then impose the constitutional test. You already know the answer, don’t you? They don’t have the authority to do what they are doing.

Mrs. Hennessy had the courage to go to the news media

What fucking “news media”?

George Mc
George Mc
Mar 19, 2023 1:08 PM

Off topic but bloody annoying:

Stewart Lee picks up an undoubtedly tasty cheque for his latest “Right on Plastic Leftist” deposit. (Graud, need you ask?)

“After Garygate, I’ve shown my BBC licence fee the red card”

Stew notches up his media credentials with the old snappy neologism generator: “Garygate”. Oh how the “gate” tag has crumpled from the (already phony) Watergate – which at least involved presidential snooping. Unlike one (equally phony and more obviously so) tweet from a sport presenter who occasionally flogged crisps.

But Stew is on a mission to berate the BBC as the plaything of fascistic Tory bastards which reaches a crescendo here:

“from the sidelining of David Attenborough’s climate crisis truth bombs to the decision to commission the 2018 sitcom Hold the Sunset by Spectator contributing editor and anti-woke GB News comedian John Cleese. “

Yes he really is saying that Cleese is Satan. “Anti-woke GB News” is the new foulest insult.

After the insufferable Billy Bragg, Stewart Lee is the purest embodiment of Hipster Woke Censorship playing above an anachronistic prole-turned affluent bourgeois barricade.

ZenPriest
ZenPriest
Mar 19, 2023 6:04 PM
Reply to  George Mc

He really is a tit. And to think I liked him once.

Edwige
Edwige
Mar 19, 2023 1:04 PM

No being left alone in the UK with everyone with a slave phone being sent an “emergency message”.

“We are strengthening our national resilience with a new emergency alerts system” said some minister. Hmm, who likes that word “resileince”? Obviously it’s because they care and not at all another exercise in slave training and fear-mongering.

Date they’ve chosen for this? The 23rd. See the Jim Carrey film ‘The Number 23’.

BTW when Andrew Bridgen raised vaccines in the Commons on Friday there seems to have been an organised walk-out triggered by MP Andrew Mitchell. There’s plenty to know about him. He photographs very nicely – with Bill Gates.

Woowoo
Woowoo
Mar 19, 2023 4:43 PM
Reply to  Edwige

MP shill and food for the useful idiots serving the establishment purpose.
The Gullible Lick it up.
Selling the lab leak.
comment image

YourPointBeing
YourPointBeing
Mar 19, 2023 6:11 PM
Reply to  Edwige

23 skidoo

Vagabard
Vagabard
Mar 19, 2023 7:39 PM
Reply to  Edwige

Yep, will get a text just before the nuke hits (assuming it’s not too hypersonic). Sufficient time to ‘duck and cover’

Grafter
Grafter
Mar 19, 2023 11:10 AM

Billionaires will of course be exempt. Purely for the little people.

j d
j d
Mar 19, 2023 10:45 AM

it is for persons not man or woman; you, are not a person; you have a person (legal entity created by the birth certificate; which is not you, and is not yours; it is the property of another); so if, you choose to be one; it does diminish your status from wo/man; and comes with duties and obligations such as to complete census nonsense;

the rights you, have are the rights you, can express; if you, cannot express them then you, do not have any; the only right mankind has is the right to property; that which is proper to you; that which you, can claim exclusive to all others in a society, which is what you, have the right to set the law for; property is the highest right; and the foundation of every right;

Freecus
Freecus
Mar 19, 2023 1:12 PM
Reply to  j d

Romley Stewart, an Australian man, provides excellent research on this subject.

j d
j d
Mar 19, 2023 3:16 PM
Reply to  Freecus

those of mankind at the sovereign’s way do share knowledge of law and the way to be free in the world: https://thesovereignsway.com/?link=65

ToS
ToS
Mar 19, 2023 9:45 AM

Holy crap.

I live in the USA and am happy I found this info. Thanks, offG.

Always appreciate your honest writers and their commitment to journalistic integrity.

Sam - Admin2
Admin
Sam - Admin2
Mar 19, 2023 11:19 AM
Reply to  ToS

Thank YOU ToS 👍

futurist
futurist
Mar 19, 2023 9:29 AM

Census form…

They knocked on our door Boxing Day at 7pm threatening us with why we haven’t replied to the letters they left us. (we never received them).

The electoral roll people do similar.

When there not doing that job, they will be the Pcr testing site / vaccine center staff.

Proper jobs worth.

j d
j d
Mar 19, 2023 10:46 AM
Reply to  futurist

did you, say you, did not receive a letter a, b, or c; as that is what a letter is ;o)

jubal hershaw
jubal hershaw
Mar 19, 2023 7:45 AM

Digital Fencing.
Our Coming Digital Prison (59.02) with Aman Jabbi

Paul Prichard
Paul Prichard
Mar 19, 2023 1:10 AM

Your alternative update on #COVID19 for 2023-03-15. Germany’s MoH admits severe CV-19 ‘vax’ injuries (1:10k doses) are too many. #TheMidazolamMurders (blog, gab, tweet).

George Mc
George Mc
Mar 18, 2023 11:16 PM

This move by government echoes similar moves being enacted throughout employments where in offices, centres etc. the old management system was wise enough to know that the essence of a job lay in what WASN’T in the company directives I.e. that essential human touch that depended on the apparently now dead notion of trust.

To be fair, our wretched predatory society has always had a problem with trust. The bosses have always eyed the minions with unease- an unease that came down to the bosses themselves from the parasitical investors above.

But the good bosses knew that to have a healthy workforce there had to be, ironically or paradoxically, a forgetting of the job relationship and thus an engagement on a human level.

The new functionaries are a new species who actually give credibility to David Icke’s notion of reptilian entities. Or perhaps Lovecraft’s sub-human hybrids? Or Philip K Dick’s notion of the autistic non-human who can only operate as a machine?

This is why workplaces are now having their employee’s souls micro-managed out of existence. These are placed that should be headlined with the old Nazi death camp motto “Arbeit macht frei”.

Edwige
Edwige
Mar 19, 2023 8:42 AM
Reply to  George Mc

“our wretched predatory society has always had a problem with trust”.

Not when it means ‘monopoly’. “Competition is a sin” as Rockefeller senior liked to say. How they dealt with the ‘trust-busting’ reform movement is an object lesson in how they function.

mgeo
mgeo
Mar 20, 2023 4:41 AM
Reply to  George Mc

Team building, motivational double-talk including “work-life balance”, superficial awards, “urgent” projects, putting an ICT leash on the employee to exploit him anywhere and any time, etc. all add to the enslavement.

WorkingClassHero
WorkingClassHero
Mar 18, 2023 11:07 PM

I head this years census comes complete with a RAT Test.

niko
niko
Mar 18, 2023 11:06 PM

To be GOVERNED is to be watched, inspected, spied upon, directed, law-driven, numbered, regulated, enrolled, indoctrinated, preached at, controlled, checked, estimated, valued, censured, commanded, by creatures who have neither the right nor the wisdom nor the virtue to do so. To be GOVERNED is to be at every operation, at every transaction noted, registered, counted, taxed, stamped, measured, numbered, assessed, licensed, authorized, admonished, prevented, forbidden, reformed, corrected, punished. It is, under pretext of public utility, and in the name of the general interest, to be placed under contribution, drilled, fleeced, exploited, monopolized, extorted from, squeezed, hoaxed, robbed; then, at the slightest resistance, the first word of complaint, to be repressed, fined, vilified, harassed, hunted down, abused, clubbed, disarmed, bound, choked, imprisoned, judged, condemned, shot, deported, sacrificed, sold, betrayed; and to crown all, mocked, ridiculed, derided, outraged, dishonored. That is government; that is its justice; that is its morality.
-Proudhon

A German
A German
Mar 18, 2023 11:05 PM

Off topic

“If I were a woman in fertile age, I would not plan a motherhood from a man who was vaccinated.”
https://redpillconspiracy.substack.com/p/dr-arne-burkhardt-confirms-sperm

No problem. China will help

http://www.independent.co.uk/tech/robot-nanny-china-population-b2004342.html

A German
A German
Mar 19, 2023 9:38 AM
Reply to  A German

Chinas involvement in western mRNA

When Kingston first came up with their theses in 2021 – at that time mainly the Chinese origin – I found that China is not the exclusive but an important supplier for these technologies – this is what the CCP company Sinopeg advertises itself here:
https://de.sinopeg.com/sinopeg-covid-19-vaccine-excipients-supply_n33

Another page of Sinopeg’s English-language website confirms this.
https://www.sinopeg.com/excipients-for-mrna-delivery-system_c138

However, what I noticed when reading it again is that a few sentences have been deleted there in the meantime – the following:

“At present, the company has a variety of mRNA vaccine lipid excipients with independent intellectual property rights, and can be CUSTOMIZED according to customer entrustment. Many of our products (including CUSTOMIZED STRUCTURES) have been verified by many mRNA vaccine manufacturers and have completed quality research data.”

The listed substances are chemicals. Chemicals are not usually customised, customising refers to programmed properties that can be activated – customised – as required. It is evident that Sinopeg is talking about programming in the now deleted section!

mgeo
mgeo
Mar 20, 2023 5:12 AM
Reply to  A German

PEG is a “nano-lipid” related to anti-freeze, a poison. Most people are allergic to PEG, i.e., it is a poison. It or another lipid serves to protect the spike, to get it into every part of the body.

Customising an organic substance is not necessarily programming it. However, some photos and videos of the jab at room temp. under microscope show self-assembling structures or bizarre changes; this may be hydrogel.

Martin Usher
Martin Usher
Mar 18, 2023 10:59 PM

I’d guess that given the sample size its just a successor to something like Mass Observation, a statistics generating exercise that started in 1930s UK that was used to shape public policy for decades. (Until, they cynical among us would say, governments starting in the1980s started shaping the public to suit their policies rather than the other way around.)

(Unless there’s decrete category called “onery bugger” that needs to be sampled then whether you’re part of the sample or not isn’t that important. So I don’t think that going all soverign citizen on them is worth the effort — just politely decline and they’ll move on.)(Because they know that if they insist you could really screw the survey up by filling in random– but credible — answers to their questions.)

NixonScraypes
NixonScraypes
Mar 19, 2023 9:01 AM
Reply to  Martin Usher

That’s the best technique – random and credible. Feel free to have fun with this sort of stuff.

Howard
Howard
Mar 18, 2023 10:56 PM

I would think the age old standby – N/A (Not Applicable) – to most of the questions would be sufficient. It may prompt a follow up by ACS though.

I realize it’s anathema to many in this forum to even use N/A. Just refuse outright. Not everyone will do that though; so it doesn’t hurt to have a Plan B.

eman
eman
Mar 18, 2023 10:54 PM

Corporate marketing folks are trying to use government to invade the privacy of Americans. I think it will be hard for Government itself to prove it has a legitimate governmental need to gather this information by mandate of survey. Nearly all of the answers to the questions i have seen can be readily obtained by other means. This kind of survey seems to violate the 4th amendment and is exactly what happened with COVID; private companies used government to do their marketing? I believe most Americans would agree, such a survey and the law that authorizes such a survey violates the 4th Amendment (which is part of the bill of rights)..below is the relevant part of the 4th amendment:
“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrant shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describe the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. ”

In my opinion, and in the light of the 4th amendment, the proposed survey questions and the penalty for not answering them seems not only to challenge the security of persons, their homes, their hidden papers, and their effects because it far exceeds what is unreasonable in scope for the purposes of the census. I believe the survey amounts to a public warrant without the need for a showing of probable cause which is a power denied to the government by the fourth amendment. My understanding is Probable cause must be supported by a sworn oath attesting to the elements to be identified and a showing of the reason that supports these elements to be retrieved are needed for a legitimate purpose before a warrant can be issued[and that only a court can issue such a warrant], and before a place can be searched and before the persons or things identified in the warrant can be seized.

Godfree Roberts
Godfree Roberts
Mar 18, 2023 10:52 PM

Confucius’ disciple asked him about the essence of good government and he replied, “The requisites of government are that there be a sufficiency of food, enough military equipment, and the confidence of the people in their ruler.”

The disciple asked: “If it were necessary to dispense with one of these, which of the three should be done without?” Confucius answered: “The military equipment.” 

He asked again, “If it were necessary to dispense with one of the remaining two, which one should be foregone?” 

Confucius replied, “Part with the food. Death has always been the lot of men; but if the people have no faith in their rulers, then the state cannot exist.”

The Coming Revolution
The Coming Revolution
Mar 19, 2023 8:04 PM

Confucius sure would rather have the population starve than be stateless.

Peter Jennings
Peter Jennings
Mar 18, 2023 10:47 PM

Don’t forget to send in a stool sample along with your forms, just in case.

Our western gov’ts are all the same. They are just waiting for you to slip up. Fines at the ready. The info gleaned will also be used by the corporate cronies to target ‘customers’, so expect lots more junk mail.
Save the planet!? whatever happened to that eh? There’s no shortage of paper for their junk mail.

A similar thing was tried on the British public some time back. That didn’t go well. We don’t respond well to threats. This reconnaissance is preparation for another attack on you, the public, so stick to rank, name, and number.

We are many, they are few. A law is only a law if the people say it is and abide by it.

mgeo
mgeo
Mar 20, 2023 6:49 AM
Reply to  Peter Jennings

If people don’t slip up often enough, they create more rules that are beyond compliance. The author pointed out a few years ago that the average USan violates a number of such rules on a daily basis.

Peter Jennings
Peter Jennings
Mar 20, 2023 11:32 AM
Reply to  mgeo

Imagine a day when violations of the ‘rules’, right down to the ‘crimes’ of misdemeanors, can no longer remain undetected and unpunished. Such a day is looming thanks to big tech, big gov’t, and big corp.

This will be easy to do once people are jammed into 15 minute cities.

Kurt
Kurt
Mar 18, 2023 9:22 PM

“A census taker once tried to test me. I ate his liver with some fava beans”

paul
paul
Mar 18, 2023 9:18 PM

I don’t think there’s much to worry about here.
Given the state of US education, how many Americans are capable of filling in a 28 page form?
One in a hundred?
One in a thousand?

The Coming Revolution
The Coming Revolution
Mar 19, 2023 8:02 AM
Reply to  paul

I think most of them will know how to fill-in the important information:

Name – address – phone number.

Everything else can obtained with them.

paul
paul
Mar 19, 2023 9:27 PM

They could just put in every box – Refer to my CIA File/ As per my NSA File.

The Coming Revolution
The Coming Revolution
Mar 20, 2023 9:05 AM
Reply to  paul

😀

Ronald
Ronald
Mar 18, 2023 8:58 PM

The God of our making counts not the hairs on your head, but rather counts upon your ignorance of what you are of, and to act as something you are not.
This will be my third census left unfilled. No hassle thus far. Kinda hope they come after me. Likely educational.

A German
A German
Mar 18, 2023 8:04 PM

Sometimes one wonders whether a war that throws all the gloomy plans out the window would not be the lesser evil.

Stewart
Stewart
Mar 20, 2023 6:36 PM
Reply to  A German

war is part of the plan, old son
no-one will ever have to explain what happened with the “economy” or the mRNA shots