It's simply keeping people employed. Remember, if these people weren't knocking on your door, the jobs numbers would be negative rather than simply flat.
Edit to add: I moved last May, from Moore to Tulsa. I mailed in my short form with the survey I received in Moore. The house in Tulsa was vacant before I moved in. They kept sending people by the house, asking why I had not mailed in the form. Explaining to them that my family had already been counted was fruitless.
They were even more confused when I told them the last occupant (my grandfather) had been deceased since April 2009 (he never stopped receiving mail as my father and I would retrieve it from the vacant residence). It blew their mind. They went as far as to try to have me complete the verbal survey on behalf of my grandfather. Because a dead guy counts in the Census? Next thing you know they'll have him voting again.
Edit to add: I moved last May, from Moore to Tulsa. I mailed in my short form with the survey I received in Moore. The house in Tulsa was vacant before I moved in. They kept sending people by the house, asking why I had not mailed in the form. Explaining to them that my family had already been counted was fruitless.
They were even more confused when I told them the last occupant (my grandfather) had been deceased since April 2009 (he never stopped receiving mail as my father and I would retrieve it from the vacant residence). It blew their mind. They went as far as to try to have me complete the verbal survey on behalf of my grandfather. Because a dead guy counts in the Census? Next thing you know they'll have him voting again.
