United Liberty

I just received a letter in the mail from the U.S. Census Bureau informing me that I would receive a letter in the mail from the U.S. Census Bureau.

It reads:

Dear Resident:

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.

Your response is important. Results from the 2010 Census will be used to help each commmunity get its fair share of government funds for highways, schools, health facilities, and many other programs you and your neighbors need. Without a complete, accurate census, your commmunity may not receive its fair share.

Thank you in advance for your help.

Sincerely,

Robert M. Groves, Director, U.S. Census Bureau

Aside from pointing out that this little friendly mailer cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars, I’ll let the UL community chip away at the language used; particularly the expressions, “need,” “many other programs,” and “fair share” to name a few.

Lest there be any confusion, the centenial Census is a legitimate duty of the federal government, as mandated in Article II, Section I of the Constitution. But that doesn’t mean we can’t poke a little fun at how it’s being carried out.

Remember the census worker that everyone thought was murdered in Kentucky? Reports are out today that he committed suicide and staged his death to look like a murder:

A U.S. Census worker found dead in a secluded Clay County cemetery killed himself but tried to make the death look like a homicide, authorities have concluded.

Bill Sparkman, 51, of London, might have tried to cover the manner of his death to preserve payments under two life-insurance polices that he had taken out. The policies wouldn’t pay off if Sparkman committed suicide, state police Capt. Lisa Rudzinski said.

“We believe it was an intentional act on his part to take his own life,” said Rudzinski, who helped lead the investigation.

You can read the details of how police came to this conclusion at the link to the story. The Sparkman family disputes the report.

Maybe we can stop making political issues out of situations like this.

Cato has summarized the 2007 Census data that was released earlier this week. While United Liberty of all political blogs will readily admit there are major problems with our economy - problems that stem from both fundamental policy choices & execution of policy - we need to make sure we do not play into the hands of the raging liberals who exaggerate every problem in society in order to achieve their political goals. Even looking at the situation from a non-ideological and pragmatic viewpoint, there is not any more reason to intervene in the economy today than there was a decade ago.

New Income and Poverty Figures Spoil the Pity Party

• The number and percentage of Americans without health insurance actually declined slightly in 2007 compared to 2006. The share without insurance in 2007, 15.3 percent, is actually lower than it was a decade ago.
• Median household income is not falling: “Between 2006 and 2007, real median household income rose 1.3 percent, from $49,568 to $50,233—a level not statistically different from the 1999 prerecession income peak.”
• The share of households earning a middle-class income of between $35,000 and $100,000 in real 2007 dollars has indeed shrunk slightly compared to a decade ago, but so too has the share earning less than $35,000 a year, while the share earning more than $100,000 continues to rise. The middle class is not shrinking; it is moving up.
• The 12.5 percent of Americans living below the poverty line in 2007 was statistically unchanged from 2006, and remains below the 13.3 poverty rate in 1997. The poverty rate has been trending downward since the early 1990s during a time of growing trade and immigration flows.
• The Gini coefficient, a statistical measure of income inequality, was .463 in 2007, down slightly from earlier in the decade and virtually the same as it was a decade ago.