In the past two days, every American household should have received an 'advance letter' from the US Census Bureau stating, "About one week from now, you will receive a 2010 Census form in the mail. When you receive your form, please fill it out and mail it in promptly." Many American taxpayers have expressed outrage to friends, family, and through online forums like Twitter and Facebook that the government would waste postage and paper simply to inform Americans that a form will be arriving in the near future. However, there is sound logic to this argument:
As the Census Bureau states (with evidence from previous decennial census counts back it up), "For every 1 percent increase in households that respond by mail, taxpayers save about $85 million in operational costs associated with census takers going door to door to follow up with households that did not mail back the form."
Robert M. Groves, the Director of the Census Bureau, elaborated, “It costs us just 42 cents in a postage paid envelope when households mail back their 2010 Census forms,” Groves said. “The Census Bureau will spend about $25 per person if we have to go out and knock on the doors of households that don't mail them back.”
Don't get me wrong, there is still a TON of wasteful activity at the Census Bureau. But sending the advance doesn't constitute such an act, so Tea Partiers and other anti-government activists should understand that these advance letters are an investment into saving taxpayers money.
http://www.examiner.com/x-41024-2010-Census-Examiner~y2010m3d10-2010-Census-Advance-Letter-Saves-Taxpayers-Money
