In "A Portrait of America," Newsweek (1/17/83) poked some fun at the national census:

"Give your name and age and business. Is your husband working now? Do you rent or own the building? Did you ever milk a cow? This is strictly confidential--are you underweight or fat? Does your husband have a bunion? Are his arches good or flat? Did you vote for Herbert Hoover? Are you dry or are you wet? Did you ever use tobacco? Did you ever place a bet? ... Are you saving any money? Do you ever pay your debt? Are your husband's old red flannels in the wash or on him yet?"--"The Census Taker," Scott Wiseman, 1940

"Uncle Sam's armies of statisticians don't really ask questions about the cleanliness of the old man's flannels," writes Newsweek, "But they do ask about the state of our arches (2.6 million are flat or fallen). ...They can expound on life and its quality and on death and its causes. They can analyze sex and birth, divorce and income, crime and eating habits. ... As a result, America knows more about itself than ever before."

That may be true--yet people are still confused about who they are and the roles they are to fill. Could it be that in the thousands of questions, the census takers have overlooked the most important ones?