The Lawful Stalker
Census takers will be arriving shortly, and they'll be asking a lot of invasive questions. With that in mind, watch this nifty little video. Caveat: The commentator is correct about the plain wording of the constitution, but I wouldn't rely on that when responding to an agent of the federal government. The Supreme Court has taken all sorts of narrow provisions of the Constitution and greatly expanded their reach. Without analyzing the census case history, I wouldn't advise anyone to rely on the plain terms of the Constitution, which, by themselves, really don't mean much anymore.
But if you can ditch a census taker, please do. Statistics are the eyes and ears of the government. Without statistics, the government is deaf and blind. The census is, I suspect, the primary means the government uses to gather its statistics.
Based on a quick internet search, it would appear that you're subject to a mere $100 fine if you refuse to answer the census. Link. But please: Don't take this as a legal opinion. I know no more about census law than the average joe on the street. Do your own internet searches or hire an attorney, if you really feel like dodging the census.
Ben Havenstein
Interesting reading: Dylan Grice, strategist at Société Générale, "provides a gripping account of Germany's hyperinflationary episode, in which he charts the extended parallels between not just the precursor economy that lead to a 16,579,999% inflation in 1923 Weimar Germany, and modern day developed (and highly leveraged) countries, but between Germany's then central banker Rudolf von Havenstein, and the Greenspan-Bernanke duo. And while we know how "der Geld Marschall's" Weimar experiment ended, the future before the U.S., as a result of the Maestro's (both Senior and Junior) almost identical policy response is still open-ended. As the future of America is now exclusively in the hands of insidious economists, the following insight from Grice into the utility of economic models and decision-making should be sufficient to dash the hopes of any optimist for a favorable outcome." Link.
Exclusive Jim Rogers Interview
