Admittedly much has improved since the first census in 1790 when 650 federal marshals went house-to-house unannounced, writing down the name of the head of the household and counting the other residents. The census cost $45,000, took 18 months and counted 3.9 million people. (more on census chronology)

Yes the letter was intended to get us excited to receive our "fair share", but could we have done without the pre-mailer?  Moot point acknowledged but multiply an unnecessary action by every citizen in the country and you have some real cash.

The 2000 census told us there were 105,480,101 households in the United States. Each household received one letter with postage of $0.44. This comes to:

$46,411,244

Probable postage discounts and rounding errors aside, $46 million dollars was spent to send a letter that didn't say anything!  To put this into perspective, in 2010 we have budgeted $50 million to The United States Institute of Peace (USIP) whose mission it is to provide the analysis, training and tools that help to prevent, manage and end violent international conflicts, promote stability and professionalize the field of peacebuilding.  That's a pretty darn serious mission.  If we couldn't return the money, could we have at least doubled their budget instead?

I do suppose it was worth while if it props the post office up for a few more years and keeps Saturday delivery around?

This reminds me of a particular Futurama episode...

Futurama	Weeknights, 9p/8c
Bureaucrat's Joy
www.comedycentral.com
Joke of the Day Stand-Up Comedy Free Online Games