MCViewPoint

https://mises.org/wire/problem-census

Ryan McMaken

The Census Bureau has long known more about my family history than my family does. For instance, it was through old census forms that I discovered my grandmother changed her name from “Paula” to “Pauline” at some time after 1930. This was news even to her children. The 1930 census form also reported her place of birth — Mexico — and her native language — Spanish. Her occupation is listed as “cashier.”

But the nosiness doesn’t stop there. Completed forms from both 1920 and 1930 show the census taker apparently prodded the family for information on all household members’ names, their citizenship status, year of immigration, and ability to read and write. In 1930, the census taker would have been instructed to ask if the householder rented the family home, the householder’s salary, and “marital condition.”

Looking at these forms, those who bring a skeptical mind to government forms and government programs might wonder why the government needs to know all this information. Many have said so publicly. This is why some politicians, pressured by voters, suggested people refuse certain census questions. At the time of the 2000 census, both Senate Majority leader Trent Lott and presidential candidate George W. Bush advised Americans not to answer questions “they believed invaded their privacy.” That may have been good advice, especially since the Census bureau recently admitted it failed to protect the personal data collected on 100 million Americans.

Trump’s Citizenship Question

On most days, though, the consensus among politicians, lobbyists, and activists is that it’s very important to know this information. But what exactly must be known depends on one’s political agenda.

For example, the US Supreme Court today heard oral arguments as to whether or not the 2020 census will include a question about each resident’s citizenship status.

NPR reports that the court is “split along ideological lines on whether a citizenship question can be included on forms for the upcoming 2020 census.”

The basic narrative as to the ideological split is this: the Trump administration has requested a new census question to help identify how many non-citizens there are in the United States. And where they are. (The questions on citizenship were abandoned after 1950.)

In contrast, the ideological left vehemently opposes the inclusion of a citizenship question for two main reasons:

First, it is claimed that a citizenship question would cause many immigrants to not fill out their census forms at all. Thus, the census would become more inaccurate, and be less reliable as a source of statistical information.

Second, a more inaccurate count would impact public policy because the census data is used to distribute welfare-state funds. As the ACLU puts it:

The federal government will use 2020 Census data to decide how to allocate $900 billion in funding for social service, health, and education programs. This money goes to everything from Medicaid to school-lunch programs to veterans’ assistance.

If the citizenship question results in a sizable undercount, states with large immigrant populations could lose funding for programs they need.

One follows from the other. They want a census count they can call “accurate” and then use it to push certain government programs…

Is the Data Any Good?

All of this, however, assumes the data is reliable. That’s not necessarily a great assumption.

Once a census taker gets beyond the simple questions of how many people live in a household, things get iffy. As we go down the road of asking people about their ethnicity, income, and living standards, we have good reason to believe people fudge their responses. Or they get confused. Many people, to this day, are unaware that “Hispanic” — as far as the census is concerned — is not a racial designation.

Even the relatively simple census forms of old were prone to errors. For example, on the 1920 census form, my grandmother is listed as a “son” named “Paul.” No male family member named Paul ever existed in that family. Who knows what other errors were recorded in other households?

Census takers themselves might also be biased as well as incompetent. For example, in both the 1920 and 1930 census, for example, my grandmother is listed as a resident alien. Yet, her children tell me she always claimed to have been born in the United States. Was she actually born in Mexico? Did she change her story after 1930? Or did the census takers in those days just mark down every Mexican-looking person with an accent as “born in Mexico.” We may never know.

And yet, aggregates of this sort of data are used to justify and plan a nearly endless array of government programs, plans, and schemes. It’s all done at our expense, and exists to favor certain interest groups. Yes, the citizenship question should be eliminated — along with nearly every other question as well.

Be seeing you