$15 billion to count ourselves-the census.

Earlier I wrote the census cost a few hundred $million. I was wrong. It costs $14.7 Billion to take the census, almost 100% more than the cost in 2000. Let’s do the math. There are 100 million households. If we divide 14.7 Billion by 100 million, the result is a cost of $150 per household. According to USA, it only costs $56 per household for a person to visit each household and take the census.

Do you see the dilemma? The government’s numbers never make sense. According to the census departments own estimates, they could personally visit each American household and take the census for about $5.6 Billion. But they do it by direct mail at a cost of $14.7 billion and they still only get a 72% response rate. One possible reason is that according the latest poll, only 22% of the people trust the government. Why fill out the silly census questionnaire anyway, which is sent to you by an organization you do not trust?

I still have not made my point. Neilson samples 1000 ( less than 0.1% of the households in the USA) homes and projects which TV shows 50 million people watch—And advertisers pay hundreds of millions of dollars based on these Neilson ratings. In another example, every 4 years, CNN or equal projects the winners of elections with less than 1% of the vote cast.

Conclusion. Give the responsibility for the census to the private sector. e.g. Give it to Neilson. Pay them, say $100 million. I bet they would jump at it. Let them sample 100,000 homes and make a projection. I bet it would be just as accurate as a household census ( remember some people really do not know how many people live in the household and where they are from and may not tell the truth anyway) and it would save $14 Billion. Or out-source it to India and let them call us on the phone, but for goodness sakes let’s not spent $15 billion to count ourselves.

Or hire all the out of work people to take the census. But there must be a better more economical more rational way. Don't you agree?