Well I had a first this year. The US Census Bureau mailed the American Community Survey questionnaire to the house. I forced myself to gather up all the data they requested about monthly electric bills and property taxes. Next the survey has sections for each person at the house: ethnic background, education background, current job?, if job then job function, etc. I filled out the Person 1 Section and Mike filled out the Person 2 section. Normally both Mike and I would skip these types questions on marketing surveys but the Census Bureau points out that we are required by law to respond... so we did.
I wonder how many generation of a family being in America makes the family members American? "American" wasn't an ethnic option so I chose German (the biggest slice in my ethic pie). The ethnic options also didn't seem to include the equivalent of an "All American" breed since a mix of several European countries better describes my ethnic background than just selecting German. Next I was somewhat confused about the way the income was requested - I just left my 401(k) contributions and dividends out of the mix. So off to Uncle Sam goes our personal data.
The bigger irony of the survey is that when the actual census came out we were living at the previous residence. The current residence was empty as we were in the process of the home purchase and move. We sent in census forms from both residences saying that this house was not occupied.
