• The census is important - it is used to determine representation and which communities, schools, hospitals and roads need federal funding.
• The 2000 US census is estimated to have cost over 4 billion dollars.
• Over $1 billion was spent on the 500,000 enumerators hired to cajole census information from about 42 million nonresponding households.
• If those 42+ million households would mail back the upcoming 2010 census forms which will be sent to them, the taxpayer would save that $1 billion.
• And if large numbers of those good citizens received cash prizes for cooperating with the census, this could be the biggest "win-win" in recorded history!

So how do we get from throwing $1 billion down the drain to giving million$ back to you and me?

It is actually quite simple

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