Wednesday, January 31, 2024

Surveys

Social Security is running out of money, and doing nothing will result in a 23% cut to benefits within a decade. The retirement trust fund, according to the latest report, will be depleted in 2033, at which point the incoming cash “will be sufficient to pay 77 percent of scheduled benefits.”

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The 2021 infrastructure bill instructed the FCC to prevent “digital discrimination” of broadband access “based on income level, race, ethnicity, color, religion, or national origin.” While the statutory language is broad, the agency’s proposed rule stretches it further to force broadband providers to prioritize identity politics.

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Surveys

In America today, is there too much individual freedom or too much government control?
To curb climate change, should gas, meat, and electricity be strictly rationed?
Are your personal finances getting better or worse?
Can government be trusted to do the right thing most of the time?

These are questions from pollster Scott Rasmussen and here are some of his results (from Jacoby)

"In [Scott] Rasmussen’s general surveys, about 16 percent of respondents said there is too much individual freedom, while 57 percent said there is too much government control. But among the polled elites, three times as many (47 percent) believed there is too much freedom. Just 1 in 5 responded that there is too much control.

Strict rationing of gas, meat, and electricity? In broad-based surveys, 63 percent opposed rationing and 28 percent approved. When elites were surveyed, on the other hand, the results flipped: Fully 77 percent favored rationing, while only 22 percent said they were opposed.

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Decades later, Rasmussen’s data suggest that the arrogance of such elites remains entrenched. In America they see a nation where people have too much freedom and should be told what to do by a government that knows best. Recounting a presentation he gave at Harvard a dozen years ago, Rasmussen tells me he has never forgotten one faculty member who demanded in exasperation: “Why won’t Americans let us lead? It’s what we were trained to do.” You don’t have to scrutinize poll numbers to recognize the impact of that attitude on America’s civic life. Too many elites look down on their fellow citizens, and an awful lot of their fellow citizens return the favor." 

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