Census Forms Hand Delivered?

This afternoon, a government employee drove out to our house (12 miles from town on a dirt road, back a long muddy driveway) to hand deliver a census form. I asked him why they didn’t mail it (surely it cost the government more than 44 cents to get him out here in his SUV). He said some addresses are selected for hand delivery. Two bits of good news to report. First, when I told him I only intend to answer the Constitutionally required questions, he cheerfully said, “That’s OK!” Then, when I opened the form later, the one Constitutional question was helpfully backgrounded in blue. This will be easy to complete. On the other hand, at an estimated $25 a visit for hand delivery to 12 million households even before attempts to mail forms to these addresses — the 2010 census is just one more example of the easy and pathetic waste of resources by government.