Couple sit with lights out to avoid census worker.

[Liberal_in_LA]

Census worker won't take no for answer
Couple says questions too personal, threatened with fine if don't comply
April 01, 2011|By Jon Yates | What's Your Problem?

A Census Bureau worker would knock on John and Beverly Scott's door and ask them to fill out an American Community Survey. The McKinley Park couple would politely decline.

But as the days passed, the visits became more frequent and the requests more urgent.

Some evenings, the doorbell would ring at dinnertime, then again at 10 p.m.

"I'm generally a nice guy. I didn't want to shut the door in her face," John Scott said. "I said, 'I'm not going to answer your questions.' She kept saying, 'You've got to, you've got to.' I shut the door, and she kept ringing the doorbell and tapping on the window."

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Scott said the requests had become so repetitive and annoying, the couple began pulling the old "out-of-candy-on-Halloween trick."

"I work afternoons, and I'm not home," Scott said. "My wife has to sit with the lights off because she doesn't want to be bothered."

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011-04-01/business/ct-biz-0401-problem-scott-20110401_1_census-worker-answer-ring

[Drale]

1. Wow can anyone say paranoid

Why are people so afraid to fill out the census? You don't think the Government already knows everything there is to to about you or could pretty easily get the info?

[Liberal_in_LA]

3. This is the more detailed census, more personal questions than the basic census

[Xithras]

4. This is the ACS, not the census. I tossed mine, and nobody ever bothered me.

I have no problem with the census, but the ACS was too troublesome, and some of the questions went a bit deep. Names, ages, and birthdates of everyone in the home, age of the house, type of fuel used to run the heater, number of rooms in your house, number of cars you own, amount of money I spent last year on heating bills, electricity bills, sewer bills, mortgage amounts, detailed educational histories for each person, a detailed list of every language you know (scored by proficiency), number of times you've been married, detailed health questions...and on...and on. It was just too much, so I tossed it.

Nobody ever came knocking at my door about it.

[1monster]

5. I'd answer NOYB for every question and send it back. I wouldn't be lying

on a government form either. It is none of their business.

[deaniac21]

2. The masses are asses.