Counting Jobs

On the 440 beltline around Raleigh,  on about mile stretch from Yonkers Road to New Bern Ave, there are by my count 3 billboards advertising jobs for the Census.  Two of these billboards face the same way and are within a quarter mile,  if I get a chance I will take a picture of it this weekend.

This demonstrates two things to me.  The $45 (probably more) that each citizen is charged for the Census is not being spent well and that people in need of jobs and on unemployment need to step up.  There is not a reason in the world these two things should not be tied together.

The government feels it needs to keep extending unemployment benefits.  I will not get into the insanity of those extensions except to say that anyone accepting them should be drafted into the Census.  They don’t have to do it,  but if they want to get paid, they will.  I would guess that this would cut down on the need for these billboards and give people a break from job hunting and watching The Wendy Williams show,  hell they might learn something or stumble across a job they might not have known about.

To me the advertising for census jobs is a useless expense when so many people are out of jobs.  I will not say it is as big of a waste as the millions of dollars worth of signs telling us that a project is funded by TARP money,  but it is close.