Big Census is Watching (and Betraying) You
One of the last great myths of “pure and noble government” in America is now dead:
Despite decades of denials, government records confirm that the U.S. Census Bureau provided the U.S. Secret Service with names and addresses of Japanese-Americans during World War II.The Census Bureau surveys the population every decade with detailed questionnaires but is barred by law from revealing data that could be linked to specific individuals. The Second War Powers Act of 1942 temporarily repealed that protection to assist in the roundup of Japanese-Americans for imprisonment in internment camps in California and six other states during the war. The Bureau previously has acknowledged that it provided neighborhood information on Japanese-Americans for that purpose, but it has maintained that it never provided “microdata,” meaning names and specific information about them, to other agencies.
The sanctity of census data has been among the most oft-repeated examples (by politicians and bureaucrats, that is) of “noble, honest and trustworthy government.” So much for that idea.
And we now exist in a state of permanent government data-mania (not to mention modern data gathering technology and sophistication) that far exceeds anything exhibited in World War II. And while our courts may be (marginally) more willing to stand athwart and yell “Stop!” than the Supreme Court was in Korematsu*, even that is little comfort in the new era of jurisdiction-stripping and other “courts are the enemy too” maneuvering in Washington.
Even before the War on Terror and this sad news story, my view of the Census was straightforward: The Constitution, for a wholly sensible reason, says take an enumeration every ten years. Fine — then enumerate me. “This is my name; this is my address. End of census.” I absolutely refuse to answer any other Census questions under any circumstances, even under penalty of law.
Remember: It’s not paranoia if they’re really after you.
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*Korematsu v. U.S., 323 U.S. 214 (1944). See also this post.
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- Census Report: Well What Did You Expect?
- How “Census Bureau” of Them
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The minimum information is, of course, all you need to do. However, it is helpful for planning purposes if we know things like: residents of a city A tend to commute to city B. This way we know to build more roads for City B than raw numbers of residents might suggest…
Of course, if you really don't like the questions, you can ask congress to stop mandating that the data be collected in the first place…