American Community Survey: Socialism at Its Finest

[Jennifer Groves]

A friend of mine received an ACS in the mail two months ago. These surveys are distributed by the U.S. Dept of Commerce every year to specific, targeted neighborhoods so they can access “more current data throughout the decade”.

http://www.census.gov/acs/www/

Supposedly, the ACS “replaces” some of the decennial census questions, but it demands far more information than the decennial census.

After looking the survey over, my friend tossed it out, unwilling to give the federal government any additional personal information. In a few weeks, she received another copy, along with a note that said she was required by federal law to complete and return the survey. She called our congressman, questioning the legality of forcing American citizens to provide information other than what the decennial census requires. An aide told her that yes, it was required by federal law, but he could not name the law (see above link under FAQs).

Since then, she has been receiving 3-4 calls from the Dept of Commerce every day, threatening her that if she doesn’t send the form in, she will be imprisoned. The latest messages have warned her that someone from the Dept will be coming to her home to collect the form.

The ACS is 28 pages long (compared to the 5 page decennial census). It requires personal information about the property at the address, specific information about each individual residing at that address, and information about each person’s daily schedule.

Here are some of the questions:

“Is Person 1 [this continues through Person 6] of Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish origin?”

If the answer is yes, the person must specify if (s)he is Mexican, Chicano, Puerto Rican, Cuban, or specify another Hispanic origin.

Then there are specific questions about race, requiring one to enter the country of one’s origin.

The ACS requires that the relationship between each person at the household must be defined and name and sex included.

But it gets worse when it comes to the Housing section (p. 5). Here, one is required to tell what year the building was constructed, the number of rooms, number of bedrooms, acreage of the lot, number of vehicles owned, and type of heating fuel used (for the benefit of the Green Police!).

You must supply the exact cost of each of your utilities for the previous month, your property value, and the amount you spend on home insurance (p. 6).

That is followed by sections that require the specific dollar amount of your debt on the property, the amount of your mortgage payment, whether or not your mortgage payment includes insurance, the number of mortgages on the home, the type of home loan you have, and what you paid in property tax last year (p. 7).

Then it continues with a bevy of inquiries about all 6 people, including each person’s educational level, what they majored in, where they attended schools and universities, their marital status, date of marriage, births, and information on military service. It pries into the details about each person’s health insurance coverage and disabilities.

This is followed by 11 questions about each person’s work schedule, including “What time did this person usually leave home to go to work LAST WEEK?” (p.10).

Next comes 8 questions about each person’s income from every conceivable source: wages, tips, salary, self-employment, interest, dividends, royalties, estates, trusts, retirement, rentals, etc. The person completing the census is expected to provide specific dollar amounts for each source.

The ACS serves one purpose and one purpose only: to increase socialism in the U.S. by “redistributing” wealth under the guise of “helping” local communities.

I suspect that only neighborhoods w/ a certain tax base ever receive these surveys.

I say, if the Dept of Commerce wants this info, then they can research it for themselves. Half of this info is already on county, city, state, or fed tax returns; the other half is none of their business. They have NO constitutional right to ask these questions, regardless of what any "law" says. At the very least, this calls for civil disobedience.

If anyone has suggestions on how to (or how NOT to) respond to these surveys, please share. They will certainly be used against us and I'm not going to assist the government in continuing to bleed us dry.

To let the Dept of Commerce know what you think about the ACS, email them at

[e-mail] with “Paperwork Project 0607-0810” in the subject line

or write to them at:

Paperwork Project 0607-0810

US Census Bureau

4600 Silver Hill Rd

AMSD-3K138

Washington DC 20233

And of course, suggest changes in legislation to our deaf, blind, and dumb representatives in DC.