Have you filled out your 10-question Census form and mailed it back to the government yet? If you haven't, you better get to it, because the questionnaire is due today. Over the next several weeks, the Census Bureau will begin dispatching some 650,000 workers to track down those that haven't returned their form to collect the laggards' information manually. Why, you may ask, does this matter? Because, other than forcing people to deal with friendly government employees, taking the time and energy to track down citizens drives up the cost of the effort...a lot.

Leaving out the costs of advertising and materials, which account for a good bit of the Census's record $14.7 billion price tag, it costs the government just $0.42 to collect an individual's information through the mail. Each individual that fails to return the form, though, forces the government to cough up roughly $25 to send a Census worker out to collect the data. That's over a 5,800 percent increase in cost per person. In fact, for every one-percentage point decrease in the national participation rate, the Census Bureau has to spend close to $85 million in additional operating costs.

So for all those individuals out there concerned about government spending, here's your chance to do something about it. Fill out your Census form and mail it back.

Image by Flickr user Travelin' Librarian used under a Creative Commons license.