Analysis of a Gallup Poll on the Economy - Essay Example

Analysis of a Gallup Poll on the Economy An article en d “Americans Favor Congressional Action on Crisis” discussed the findings of a poll taken the previous night that attempted to find out the level of Congressional intervention the public felt was necessary in the current financial crisis and the degree of the perceived severity of the crisis. Generally, the poll attempted to capture the basic mindset of Americans in regards to what needed to be done, whether they felt as though a different plan of action needed to be taken than the one President Bush proposed, and how serious Americans felt the crisis was in comparison to other events in their lifetime. Of interesting note, of those that found the crisis to be the most sever of their lfietime, the youngest group, 18-35, had the smallest percentage, 33%, compared to the over 55 age group, 42%, many of whom would have been alive during the Great Depression. Even though this group is the youngest and has the least amount of time in which to compare different crises, this smaller percentage could be in part due to the crisis affecting the financial and housing markets more, of which this younger group would be less likely to feel the effects of, as opposed to the direct effect of the price of filling up one’s tank with gas. Older Americans with assets, including owning their own house and such, would probably feel the anxiety of the financial sector being in peril. The poll found that 78% of those polled favored that some sort of government intervention be taken. Of those, 22% favored the plan that was proposed by President Bush, and 56% favored a plan different from the Bush proposal. Of those polled, only 11% favored that no action be taken at all, with another 11% having no opinion. A telephone survey was performed for this poll. There was a margin of error of plus of minus 3%. In the first set of questions asked, the poll asked what specific plan of action would they like to see done. Also, it should be noted that this poll was taken before high-intensity negotiations took place in Congress. The poll attempted to also find out to the degree at which people were following the story in the news. 80% of people were either watching the news very closely or somewhat closely, and this statistics ranked in the highest tiers as far as percentages of people following a new story. The poll also asked what the outcome would be if no action was taken by Congress, and the resounding answer was that 74% of people felt that the situation would get worse. Some of the questions tended to be rather leading or not objective in nature. For instance, the first question, though the poll stated that the majority of people favored government intervention, specifically asked whether or not President Bush’s plan should be implemented. A more objective way to have found out the degree to which people wanted the government to intercede would have been to ask in general first whether or not they wanted the government to intercede, and then ask specifically whether or not Bush’s plan was the favored plan of action. With so many controversies surrounding Bush’s presidency, and people’s tendency to blame all problems on the most visible person in government, most people are probably blaming President Bush for the current crisis, and while there are various aspects of his policies that surely led to the situation, the blame should be spread further around to include people not in government, including CEO’s with incredibly exorbitant salaries. While some of the questions might not have been fully objective, the overwhelming evidence is that the vast majority of people feel as though this is a huge and serious issue that needs some sort of governmental action in order to prevent further catastrophe. Even with the margin of error previously mentioned, there is no way of denying that an incredibly large number of people feel that this is a serious issue, are following it closely, and probably feel as though they are experiencing a defining moment in American history. The large number of people who say that they are following the story and the number if people that feel as though intervention is necessary indicates that the poll seemed to capture the public’s attitude regarding the situation. Some of the other results, in regards to the severity of the situation according to age groups, were quite a bit closer and could have possibly, considering the amount of error that the survey allowed for, not been to the extent that they appeared. The final outcome of the survey is not surprising. With issues that are this serious, most people are going to want to government to attempt to fix the situation. Only people that are the staunchest of liberalists are not going to want the government to intervene in a situation such as this. It is also not surprising that, in regards to people that do want the government to intervene, the majority of the people do not want Bush’s plan to be implemented. As mentioned, it is easiest to blame the president, and if people feel as though he and his administration’s policies are responsible for the situation, then obviously they are going to want for other people to come up with a plan to fix the situation. Also of interest is the level of people that want some sort of a cap on executive salaries and help for home owners. With 63% of people considering salary caps very important and 49% of people considering the mortgage dilemma very dilemma, it is obvious that people feel that these two aspects have helped to contribute to the problem. Of course, these were the only two questions that were specifically asked, and these questions, especially the corporate executive question, might be considered to be rather leading. A more objective way to approach this question would have been to list various factors that people would have thought were important components to the deal, and then let people decide which factors were most important. I think that this would have been a better way in which to determine people’s opinion on these issues. Works Cited Newport, Frank (2008) “Americans Favor Congressional Action on Crisis.” Available from http://www.gallup.com/poll/110746/Americans-Favor-Congressional-Action-Crisis.aspx. Read More