Census Quote by Chessela Helm
““Are you going to count me on the census form?” “Sure. Ghost squatter, quantity of one. Sex male, race Caucasian, age dead. That’ll really help with the demographics.””
About This Quote
Source Film: The Ghost Writer, 2010
A darkly comic comment on how bureaucratic data collection can absurdly include the dead, highlighting the absurdity of statistics.
In simple terms: Bureaucracy can absurdly count even the dead.
Key Takeaway
Question the relevance of data collection.
Themes
humor
bureaucracy
absurdity
Mood
wry
satirical
Type
social critique
humorous
When to use this quote
- government forms
- census data
- office humor
- social commentary
Key Concepts
statistics
existential irony
Questions to Reflect On
- What does counting the dead say about our society?
- How does humor expose bureaucratic flaws?
A Different Perspective
May overlook real human experiences behind numbers.
![“One thing that's really interesting is not only the magnitude of the recent immigration into this country, but also its distribution and its investment in the country. About 9.3 percent of the population is now foreign-born [announced by the Census Bureau at over 10 percent a few days later]…” quote by Kenneth Prewitt](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/1ec/kenneth-prewitt-70686_big-cities_one-thing-that-s-really-interesting-is-n_122203.jpg)
![“Money nowadays is money; money brings office; money gains friends; everywhere the poor man is down. [Lat., In pretio pretium nunc est; dat census honores, Census amicitias; pauper ubique jacet.]” quote by Ovid](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/fdc/ovid-276_census_money-nowadays-is-money-money-brings-off_383990.jpg)
