Saturday, December 17, 2011

No, they are not 99%

An interesting review of several recent Gallup surveys (you may want to visit the Gallup site for the original statistics):

Less and less Americans think that they are poor ("have nots"):
"Let me start with a Gallup survey released on December 15, which showed that the number of Americans who see American society as divided into haves and have-nots has decreased significantly since the 2008 election. Back then, 49 percent saw the country as divided along those lines, and 49 percent didn’t. As of this week, only 41 percent see the country as divided between haves and have-nots, while 58 percent do not. (The share of Americans who consider themselves to be “haves” hasn’t budged: 59 percent in 2008, 58 percent today.)"

Most Americans do not think that the inequality gap is the major problem facing their country:
"Now consider another Gallup survey, this one released on the 16th. Respondents were asked to categorize three economic objectives as extremely important, very important, somewhat important, or not important. Here’s what they said:
                                                Extremely/very important          Somewhat/not important
Grow and expand
the economy                                         82                                            18

Increase equality of
opportunity for people to
get ahead                                               70                                            30

Reduce the income and
wealth gap between the
rich and the poor                                  46                                            54
 

Regardless of partisanship, substantial majorities of Americans saw expanding the economy and increasing equality of opportunity as extremely or very important. Not so for reducing income and wealth gaps—21 percent of Republicans and 43 percent of independents. Only Democrats gave this goal a high priority, by a margin of 72 to 27."

Majority of Americans think that "Big Business" is a lesser evil than the "Bog Government":
"A third Gallup survey asked Americans to state whether they saw big business, big government, or big labor as the biggest threat to the country in the future. In March of 2009, 55 percent felt most threatened by big government, and 32 percent by big business.  As of December 2011, a near-record 64 percent saw big government as the greatest threat, versus on 26 percent for big business. As Obama nears the end of his third year in office, the people are more likely to fear government, and less likely to fear business, than they were at the beginning of his administration."

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