“I fail to see how it could possible cost $1billion to fix a census. Maybe it costs $990 million to hire consultants and have meetings about the need to fix the census, from which the only outcome is “we need to fix the census”, then the remaining $10million to actually do it. Isn’t that typically how our government spends money? Guess what after the $1billion, the census is still going to be screwed up as it always will.”
Actually, $1 billion for a census that covers the entire population of the United States is a pretty good budget.
For a start, it on;y happens every 10 years, so you’re not going to have the people in place since the last one to do it. There’ll be a few key people kept on retainer since 2000, but the feet on the ground will need to be hired to do the heavy lifting.
Next – although its a census, and will tabulate pretty much the same things over its lifetime – there’s always new questions that need to be asked each time its run. Yes, that will involve getting some people in a room to decide what needs to be asked (who need to be paid).
Then, you have to proof it, print it and distribute it to everybody. You’ll need people to deliver it, run a phone line for people asking questions about it, and have people on the ground to make sure that people get them, and have answered them.
You also need to provide ‘special’ census forms for the legally blind (in Braille) and also in the largest minority languages in the country – the amounts of each, ironically, calculated from the last census in 2000. You need to co-ordinate with the postal services to make sure that you get a blanket delivery. Plus, you need to send some overseas.
Finally, you need people to input the data, hire or buy computers to store the data, and hire people to analyse and distribute the data to the relevant agencies.
So, all in all, for the largest survey in the US – I’d say that $1 billion is pretty good.
Having worked for quite a while as a statistician that conducted much more modest surveys, with a much smaller population base than the entire US, its amazing how much money it costs.
And, yes, the Census is ALWAYS screwed up – no matter how hard you try, there will always be problems with it. One of the myriad ways of ‘fixing’ it is to try and create models that fill in the missing gaps, and to find ways of disseminating in non-traditional ways (ie online).
But, according to the constitution, you HAVE to do it. And, you should WANT to, too – how can you plan anything with old and out of date data?
Knowledge is power – and no matter if you think its a waste of money, its important to keep an eye on the shifting demographics of the country.
