Working in Iowa
Do You Really Count?
Mar 31, 2010
By Dave Swenson
By Dave Swenson
I carry a copy of the U.S. Constitution with me everywhere, and it has come in handy of late. I do this because time after time I have been assaulted by constitutional oracles who in fact are not. I am not a constitutional scholar by any means, but I do know how to read, which seems a frequently overlooked prerequisite on the part of those out there shrilly claiming their freedoms are under attack.
This is found in Article 1, Section 2: The actual Enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct.
An “enumeration” is a census. Every 10 years a federal census counts people for the purpose of apportioning the states’ delegates to the U.S. House of Representatives. There are now people claiming that constitutional authority only involves the physical headcount of persons, nothing more. But it doesn’t. Article 1 clearly indicates the census is to be conducted in a way as “… they [i.e., Congress] shall by Law [i.e., federal statute] direct.” Congress gets to decide by law exactly how it wants to count the population.
So now we know the “it’s unconstitutional and they are violating our freedoms” argument is hooey. Let’s move on to the actual census process. Under penalty of law, we as householders must all truthfully fill out our census forms. Urging people to not fill out their census form is analogous to urging people to not pay their taxes. By law as well, census information is to remain confidential, and there are severe penalties for violating that provision.
There are claims the U.S. census is intrusive and asks personal questions. It asks your name. It asks you to count the people in your household. It asks whether your residence is an apartment or a single family home. It asks your telephone number in case there are questions about your answers. It asks your gender and your age. It asks whether you are of Hispanic origin and, separately, your race. Except for the race and Hispanic information, that is all the same information you submit for getting a credit card or a bank loan.
All silliness aside, the census is a big deal. Once a decade we get a benchmark on how and where we are growing. It tells us our composition, and importantly it apportions our votes in Congress. The census determines whether a city finally grows to the metropolitan threshold of 50,000 persons. Iowa City, Ames, and West Des Moines all became metropolitan cities in the past 30 years. In the next 10 or 20 years or so Ankeny and Urbandale will probably attain that status too. Metropolitan places are treated differently by federal law and receive more federal aid per capita.
The census gives us a snapshot of our composition, and it tells us what has happened in the intervening 10 years. It will tell us the state of Iowa is becoming more diversified, both racially and in terms of Hispanic origin. It will also tell us that we are an aging state, not so much because we have a disproportionate number of elderly as many think, but because we are losing our young adults and their children to other states.
The census will tell us that we are more rural in places in Iowa and more urban in a few others. When the very detailed city and county census data come out, we will be able to discern the important compositional attributes of our growing areas and of our declining areas, which in turn helps governments plan service delivery and allocate infrastructure and other necessary public goods in manners that are more effective and equitable.
In short, the census tells us who we are, where we are, and what has happened in the past decade. It is not a trampling of individual rights or an onerous intrusion into the sanctity of the home. It is a simple count of the principal characteristics of this country’s population.
The irony of the controversy is that those urging their friends and neighbors to not participate are shooting themselves in the foot while shooting off their mouths. The vast majority of federal and state resources are allocated on a per capita basis, as of course is representation in the U.S. House of Representatives.
So, here goes:
My name is David Swenson; I live alone in an owned, single family home in Ames, IA; I am white; I am not Hispanic; and I am 55. I filled out my census form and mailed it back the first day.
I count. Do you?
_________
Dave Swenson is a long-time analyst of Iowa political, social, and economic issues. He is a staff research economist at Iowa State University and an extension-to-communities economics educator. He also teaches community and regional planners (those nefarious agents of totalitarian control) how to do economic things in their profession.
