Good thinking! I sympathize with people who have to be awakened by a knock on their door or by the doorbell ringing or by the phone ringing. It's even worse when one or more of your neighbor refuse to answer their questionnaire and a census taker knocks on your door hoping to have you as a proxy for them. Perhaps, 10 years from now, on the 2020 census, the government has become more efficient in this matter, and the people more responsive than ever.

Some neighbors, landlords, lenders, etc., take the chance to give more confidential information than is necessary about their neighbor or what not until it sounds like a gripe session to the census taker who only want to get done ASAP with the questionnaire at hand. And who knows if there are other people around within hearing distance.

Harassed, you yourself wasted government dollars. You know how? I heard a census taker then have to knock on doors in your neighborhood to find a proxy for your address (or find other sources of information like a landlord, etc). That takes more time and effort on the part of the census taker. In addition, the proxy might give inaccurate information or, worse, a neighbor/proxy may tend to give more confidential information than is needed when they know the census taker is sworn to keep the information confidential. And your neighbor(s) may not be thrilled that their time is being wasted giving answers to a questionnaire intended for you to answer once again. And by the way, I'm certain the census bureau can assure you that an overwhelming majority of the census takers are not criminals as you might have wished in order for you to have one more excuse to duck your civic duty. And temporary workers on a bicycle are not criminals either. Just being eco-friendly. And having mailed in your census form doesn't mean you don't ever have to answer the questions again on a follow-up call or on a follow-up visit. So, even without the harassment (which is unfortunate and irresponsible), you, with your refusal have, in effect, wasted taxpayer dollars.