US Govt wastes another $2.5 million
 

2.5 million doesn't sound like much to the govt but they bought a Super Bowl ad for the 2010 Census. That same $2.5m could have bought 50 cheap $50,000 homes and housed 50 homeless families. I am sure they waste more each day but I doubt they will ever get their shit together.

If the waste were only $2.5m per day they could house 18,250 new families per year in $50,00 homes. Give them the home and a chance to make a go of it.

With the same $2.5m per day they could feed 833,333 people which is over 3 billion meals/yr.

I'd rather see them feed the 833,333 people than buy a Super Bowl ad.

reminds me of the movie "Dave"... it could be so easy sometimes.

i don't think you understand how important the census is and the obstacles the bureau faces trying to get accurate #s.

2.5m$ is a fraction of the census bureau's total ad budget of ~$150 million

Present administration doesn't care bout where the money is coming from, they just borrow more, kinda like my first wife

The Super Bore is more important than the hungry and the homeless:2 cents:


















Not:disgust

You think that monies from one entity should just be made available to others? And I doubt that they are paying $2.5 million a day on superbowl commercials.

Try to use a little logic.

no different than previous administrations. i think we have a couple wars waging we borrowed to finance.

:mad::mad:

Try reading a little harder. I did not say they spent $2.5m on Super Bowl ads per day. I said the govt probably wastes more than $2.5m per day. As for money coming from on entity to pay for others, if the Census Bureau has $2.5m to pay for a SuperBowl ad their budget is $2.5m too big.

Too much of what goes on in Washington is that agencies want a bigger budget each and every year. They do not want more money because they need more money they want more money because it is a power trip to see who can get the most.

I guess you feel the census has little to no importance.

You must have taken a stupid pill today.

:1orglaugh:1orglaugh:1orglaugh

thats loot..

Yeah, cause this is sooooo less important than Bush's "pot=terrorism" suberbowl ad.

a little bit of information re: why the census bureau advertises and specifically why they are running the superbowl spot:


Why Does The Census Bureau Advertise?

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February 05, 2010 12:28 PM

All surveys that attempt to obtain high response rates in the United States have been experiencing declining participation rates over the past 20 years or so. In the best scientific surveys in the country, interviewers are asked to make repeated calls to first contact the sample households, and then repeated contacts to address concerns of the sample persons, sometimes completing the interview in several settings.

It is no surprise, therefore, to any one in survey research that the costs of the US decennial census have been increasing over time. In my personal judgment, much of the cost inflation is from increased reluctance to participate.

In contrast to a sample survey, however, everyone is targeted in a census. Therefore, solutions to cost reduction and increasing participation are vastly different than for surveys. Mass and targeted advertising is an option for a census.

The decennial census begins by mailing a questionnaire to most persons; this is the cheapest mode of data collection from households. If everyone filled out that form and mailed it back, vast sums of money required for followup activities to the nonrespondents would be saved. For this reason, much attention at the Census Bureau is focused on how to increase the mailback rate.

For three decades after the 1970 census, mailback rates fell sharply until the 2000 census. That was the first time the Congress authorized the Census to launch a paid advertising and public relations effort to help slow this rate of decline. We exceeded expectations in 2000, and we not only halted the decline but the American public increased their response rate. As a result the Census Bureau later in 2000 returned to the federal Treasury some $305 million in savings, partly because of this renewed civic engagement. The Congress and our oversight agencies generally applauded this effort in 2000, and encouraged us to do more for 2010 to help get a better count, improve accuracy, and hopefully again save the government some important funds.

We’re advertising again. The management equation on this is pretty simple. For every one percentage point we increase the mailback rate, we save about $85 million dollars of followup costs. This is a business proposition. We seek ways that get the message out, even if it is unusual for a Federal agency to do so. We spent about $85,000 on the Alaska trip to kick off the census, but garnered an audience from publicity (85 million) that would have cost 300 times as much in paid media (see earlier blog entries on the Noorvik trip). We will advertise on the 2010 Super Bowl, as we did in 2000. The Super Bowl is the top-rated and most highly anticipated television event in the U.S. An ad running once in the Super Bowl has the potential to reach 45% of adults over age 18. A thirty second spot on the top-rated regularly-scheduled show in America, American Idol costs $450,000 and is viewed by just about 9% or 10% of all households watching TV. The Super Bowl reaches 100 million viewers at a very efficient price compared to other shows.

The Super Bowl is also rare, in that viewers are just as tuned in to see the commercials as the program itself. Commercials that air on the Super Bowl have a multiplier effect. Advertisers are mentioned in multiple news media outlets and viewers will typically look to view them online almost immediately after airing. Therefore, airing once in the Super Bowl creates significant buzz leading to additional viewing potential. If just one percent of the folks watching the Super Bowl had their minds changed to mail back a census form they would have otherwise ignored, it helps save the taxpayers between $25-30 million in expensive follow up costs to collect these forms later.

We hope all these efforts help encourage every household to mail back their Census form. Each one of us who does can take a bit of pride in knowing that when we do, we help save our government substantial sums.

Agreed, yet they keep advertising on TV like they have for the last 20 years. If you do not answer the census survey sent in the mail they come and knock on your door so they can get the answers they need. They do not need the ad. Do not believe in their BS saying they do.

you obviously did not read past that sentence.

worthless thread.

:)

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/28578

U.S. Population At 13,462
'We Don't Think Everybody Sent In Their Census Forms,' Say Officials

WASHINGTON, DC?With the April 1 deadline for returning Census 2000 forms finally passed, the Bureau of the Census announced Monday that the U.S. population stands at 13,462.

The Onion rocks! :thumbsup

Just because others did it, doesn't make it right.

I think they could get out the word better thru other means at less cost, but the way the government is going , Football will be government controlled in a couple years and this won't be a problem, LOL

I read the whole thing. I chose not to blindly believe in what the govt said though.

Kind of funny you are complaining, given the census is something that actually is in the constitution...

that's not the point at all.

that's cool with me, i had already figured that out, and am not concerned.

i will add that the only person here who thinks that an adult site affiliate with a limited education knows better about how to efficiently conduct a census of 300 million people is you.

WTF? How much do you think that would cost to send people out door-to-door?

Wouldn't that be SOCIALISM!?!

HUD already owns a ton of vacant $50,000 houses. If they gave them away, half the nation would just scream about giving something for nothing to deadbeats.

You are missing the whole point of the thread by focussing on just the ad. I'll give you the $2.5m back for the super bowl ad so you can be happy and run it. The point is that there is too much govt waste in general.

Too many dollars spent on stupid shit when there are greater problems. Too much agency greed just to get a bigger piece of the federal budget pie so they can spend it all and ask for even more next year.

DateDoc, I think you have a fundamental disagreement with most other people in this thread on the importance of the census.

I think it's more about how to do the census, just like people want health reform, but most don't want government controled healthcare

no, dude said the money should go to putting homeless people in homes and rolling the dice that they can all the sudden become a viable part of the work force just because the government gave them a free house.

I said that is one option - not the only option. It was an example of how else the money could be spent. We need to waste less period!

well when you consider that San Bernardino county spend 64 million in welfare on children from illegal aliens in one year, we're already doing that

i know it's a complicated world we live in and a lot is fucked up but damn, man, you can really intertwine & distort shit.

I was comparing housing people, both homeless and people from other countries, how is that distortion? Although I believe that homeless is a bigger problem than housing illegal aliens, they should be sent back.

This thread was started in the intent of government waste of money for the census, I have reseached my family history and believe we need the census, but when states like california have to raise state income tax and cut the incomes of state employee's, it's pretty fucked up to see an ad for the Census during the super bowl. All the time while illegal aliens are collecting checks for their natural born children

It's important alright. They need to get an accurate count of their inventory so they can borrow against it.

:1orglaugh:1orglaugh:1orglaugh

:thumbsup

yup, that's how accounting for global monetary borrowing works!

The good: The Super Bowl watching public is probably a vast majority of the people that aren't bothering to fill out the form.

The bad: The commercial would have to be the best ever to keep their attention and convey the importance of the census so that they'll fill out their form.

And even then, sometimes people are just too busy. I've had mine for weeks and am just about to get around to filling it out, ironically probably tomorrow.

It's sad but probably what they should do is attach a lottery of about $5 million to filling it out - whoever completely fills it out is eligible for the drawing and there's just 1 winner of $5 million. Would be easy enough to get that viral probably.

that's a great idea, it would requiring advertising it. most americans are not in any one viral loop.

True that, but trying to convince people to fill out a survey to possibly win $5 million vs. trying to convince people to fill out a survey for nothing would take a lot less advertising dollars. Partially because social media could then assist with WOM. Hell, even add on a referral bonus where if you refer someone to take the census and they win, you get $10,000 or something. There - $5,010,000 for a reason for Joe Blo to take the census and to refer his buddy Rick to take the census.

They already came by and didn't get an answer at my door. As he walked away my friend was allowed in. I'm nobodies inventory.