A solopreneur, I was too busy filing over 70 pages of income tax forms: federal, state, and local (yes, the City of Grand Rapids still collects income taxes in addition to property taxes.) Completing one more redundant page of bureaucratic information during an incredibly busy tax season may have driven me bonkers.

I rolled my eyes when I saw the pre-census postcard in my mailbox. Tragic waste, I thought. The postcard had 1) my name and 2) my address printed on it. Redundancy alert -- that's two down on the forthcoming list of ten census questions.

When I later received the actual census form, I was shocked. It's 2010, not 1980 -- yet residents cannot complete a form electronically! This is a jaw-dropper in terms of wasted time and resources.

Further, I was incredulous when I discovered that I already answered almost every census question -- on my Federal income tax return! Why not just add a few more lines to the annual income tax form and be done with the census? Why a separate mailing? Why a separate data collection agency? After all, it's the same federal government!

Now, there are those who might say, "But some people don't file their taxes!"

Please. Get real. People who don't file taxes aren't likely to file a census form, either. And if they do, it's probably not going to be accurate.

And I don't want to hear, "What's the big deal? It only takes a minute!"

Multiply that one minute by millions of people. Multiply that one mailing by 3 or 4 times to account for pre-census postcard mailings, the census itself, and the census returns. And multiply the time it takes to input all that data into its own independent silo, instead of more effectively coordinating it with other federal data collection agencies.

In business, we're concerned about creativity and productivity. Why isn't the Federal government?

Asking millions of people to complete redundant paper forms -- in 2010! -- during tax time is an insensitive productivity drain. Ignoring technology tools that improve data quality and hasten filing, collection, and tabulation is an especially egregious oversight. Sending part-time employees into the field to collect data from scofflaws is an exercise in frustration and low-quality data gathering.

We have the technology. We have the information. We have the creativity. Why not make changes to dissemination, collection, and tabulation that are likely to elicit more accurate results more quickly -- and for far less cost?