Protesting the census (from Dean's World)

(My response to what might be an obvious question that cycles every ten years.)
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Unless I’m wrong on this, I think everybody in the United States is on file with the Social Security Administration (SSA) from the year they are born. Moreover, this information is probably known to every school district in every part of all 50 states.

Therefore, an easily programmable national database with all the vital US Census-related information already exists, and is updated every year. And all the need on everybody is probably no more than 200 bytes, that means a database of about 60 GB. Which is easily handleable on any 64-bit platform.

Hell’s bells. for my mailing list business, I already have access to a national database of some 240 million people. I have all the Wisconsin consumers in a single database on one of my business-class computers. And as soon as I upgrade from 32-bit to a 64-bit processor, system board, and memory, I will use a modern post-VFP xbase program to get the USA file into a single database so I can make cross-state customer counts.

And I’m certain the US Department of Commerce can do all this even a lot more efficient and quicker than an old man in southern Wisconsin running a small-time list business. And that certainly must include the ability to estimate the population of each state sufficient to re-apportion the seats of the US Congress as is done every ten years.

Or is this just another $500 federal purchase of a toilet seat that I can buy for about $13 in a local do-it-yourself plumbing supply store on the east side of Madison, Wisconsin?

Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI