I'm sitting here looking at the envelope pictured above and shaking my head. You will notice the box in the upper right hand corner where a stamp would normally be affixed.
First Class Mail! This wonderful letter addressed to "Resident" was posted as First-Class mail. I'm assuming that every household in America got the same letter which notified the residents of that address that next week we would be getting a Census Form in the mail and asking them to complete the form. Is a pre-notice really necessary? Just ballpark figures assume the average household consists of 3 people and there are 300 million residents of the USA. That's 100 million letters. First-class postage is $0.44 but there is a discount for pre-sorted. However, there is some cost in preparation so we'll say it cost 50 cents per letter to prepare and mail. This little notification cost you and me only $50 million!
No wonder the Tea Baggers protest the out of control government spending.
The Census Bureau claims that the pre-letter and an anticipated post-letter will raise participation and form return by 6 to 12%. And for each form returned the cost is $1 for the two letters versus $25 for a follow-up visit by a live census taker. So a 4% increase would break even and a 12% increase would be a significant savings.
Still, I bet you just threw away your letter. Right?
I did look at it first, but mainly becuase I thought that it was the actual census form and I was excited to fill it out. And I didn't just throw it out. I recycled it.
ReplyDeleteDitto. Into the recycle bin with a wonder why I have to pay for such nonsense.
ReplyDelete