75-12-B6
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Polls on Government[edit]
Transcript[edit]Polls and surveys are often as interesting for what they don't say is for what they do say. I'll be right back. Remember that survey taken a few months ago that showed that most people are not interested in setting up a new federal consumer protection agency. Well seventy-five percent opposed it regardless of the cost of running it and another six percent objected because of the cost. That's a total of eighty-one percent. That item was only a small part of a survey taken by Opinion Research Corporation of New Jersey and Research Strategies Corporation of New York City. The survey also found out quite a bit about people's lack of knowledge of what's going on in government and what they think about the kind of job government's doing. Some of the results at a glance might give a casual poll reader an impression that people are quite happy with government. For instance the survey found that only 14 percent of those questioned think they've been treated unfairly by government, while nearly 80 percent said they believe government has treated them fairly. But that isn't what the answers meant at all. What they meant was that in their personal dealings with government, most people think they've been treated fairly, they got some money back in their income tax return, the water bill wasn't too high last month, the tax appraiser was polite when it came around, the garbage is picked up on time and so forth. That doesn't mean however that people are happy with the amount of government they have or even the kind of government they have. On the contrary, another respected polling firm Decision-Making Information of Santa Ana, California has found consistently that more than almost anything else people want government to get off their backs. They resent high taxes going for things that don't benefit them. They resent government intrusion in their personal and business affairs. They resent compulsion and the attitude by government that it knows best. These feelings are worth more than just measurement by survey research companies. In fact their expression last year forced Congress to repeal the interlock seat belt law, and they led to the Environmental Protection Agency backing off from its efforts to keep people from driving their autos into the central city. And there, why, the pressure is on to deregulate transportation, end fair trade laws and in other ways put a halt to government interference. And the people expressed these feelings when they told the pollsters that 75 oppose setting up a new federal consumer agency and only 10 percent favor it. But perhaps the most interesting thing about the opinion research survey is the fact that, despite a lot of noise being made in Washington about the proposed new consumer agency, only 22 percent of the public has ever heard of it. This means that Congress, as it often does, is acting on its own, without paying attention to what the people want or don't want. And it also means that too many of us aren't paying attention to what government is up to and are not speaking out in protest when it acts against our best interests. There are two old sayings, one that, "people get the kind of government they deserve" the other, "government works when the people work at it." This is Ronald Reagan. Thanks for listening. |
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