Forum Post: GALLUP: Americans Blame Gov't More Than Wall Street for Economy
Posted 13 years ago on Oct. 19, 2011, 11:04 p.m. EST by IminTexas
(33)
from La Marque, TX
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
PRINCETON, NJ -- Americans are more than twice as likely to blame the federal government in Washington (64%) for the economic problems facing the United States as they are the financial institutions on Wall Street (30%).
When asked who do you blame more for the economic problems facing the United States; 30% said financial institutions 64% said the federal government
When asked how much blame financial institutions and the federal government deserved; 45% said financial institutions deserve great blame 33% said a fair amount 13% said not much 6% said not at all
56% said government deserves great blame 31% said a fair amount 9% said not much 2% said not at all
Comparing the Tea Party and OWS opinions; 82% of Tea Partiers blamed the government more 17% blamed Wall Street more
54% of OWS supporters blamed Wall Street more. 44% of OWS supporters blamed the government more
Among Republicans; 82% blamed the government more 16% blamed Wall Street more
Among Independents; 65% blamed the government more 28% blamed Wall Street more
Among Democrats; 49% blamed the government more 46% blamed Wall Street more
http://www.gallup.com/poll/150191/Americans-Blame-Gov-Wall-Street-Economy.aspx
Many questioned at the beginning, "why are you protesting at wall street? the problem is in washington." to the response "wall street is symbolic of the problem; we know the problem is in washington".
Wall street was the immediate cause of the problem, but our lawmakers allowed it.
I have to say even though I am hating Washington to bits right now, I see how the attack dogs have to be on Wall Street. Wall street has all the money not our broke government and they are a bunch of high-class criminals go after them with a vengeance!!!!! But don't forget to cut off the head of the snake the FED, first!!
The vast majority of them break now laws. That is the point. The government's policies allowed them to do this.
can you say, they are one and the same?? how is that difficult to see??
I think the poll would have been much more informative if it had asked who or which party or which institution (the House, the Senate, the Judiciary, or the Presidency) in government the people blamed.
Kind of pointless...it took both parties and all branches of government to create this mess.
I disagree. It would also be interesting to see if people blame State governments? And what differences they see between State and the Federal government. I for one think States are redundant.
Interesting angle on the "state are redundant"...care to expand on that?
50 state governments, 50 different state tax codes (income or sales), 50 different state laws.
But only 1 Federal Government.
Want less government? It is not the Federal government we should get rid of. It is 50 redundant state governments we should rid ourselves of!
State legislatures are a redundant, unproductive middle management. In times of severe deficit shortfalls, we should excise this expendable fat from government, and stop paying state politicians. They don't do much more than their federally elected counterparts. They remind me of the tribal war lords in Afghanistan. When companies merge, middle management is the fat they trim. Voters should demand the same of government: Abolish state legislatures. Federal representatives are equally qualified to do state legislative functions, and can be paid a 10% bonus for doing so.
Think of not only the cost savings; think of how good this would be for businesses. You won't need to have accountants and lawyers who are experts on different state tax codes in different states. Do you know how much it costs to hire an accountant or a lawyer in each different state for your business?
Uniform, simplified taxation and business laws leads to freer and more efficient markets. Think of the redundancies of different state benefit processing centers all trying to do similar but unfortunately slightly different things.
We need a constitutional amendment. Yes! Smaller governments! Get rid of state governments. One United America.
and onto my other comment, the whole "labratory of the states" concept. 50 different and unique ways to address problems that or may not be unique to the given geographic needs of the populous.
While Louis Brandeis regarded the States as laboratories of democracy, I frankly don't like to be experimented on. Did he think we were lab mice?
There are better ways to plan and optimize welfare. In this day and age, we can always look to foreign nations as laboratories, pick best practices from across the globe, without subjecting people to the inhumanity of experimentation.
"lab mice...inhumanity of experimentation"
Enjoying a bit of reductio ad absurdum are we?
"government closest to the people governs best" --Thomas Jefferson
Jefferson lived in a time when there were no phone, and not internet, no fax machine, and certainly no iPads. You can be as close and chummy with your Federal Representative as you want, and just as easily as your State chums. While Jefferson may have had to ride on a horse, you can just call your federal reps. at their offices. It is equally hard for me to reach my state rep as for me to reach my fed. rep. They are equally unresponsive. Why should I pay the salaries of both? Let's save money, cut the deficit and get rid of the State governments, and save America's future..
Thanks for expanding, and please forgive my brevity, I'm on an ipad...
As I see it, the 50 individual states are kind of the beauty of the United States. Why? Simple...don't like how your state is being run, you can vote to change that. But then again, I can imagine a Democrat in S. Carolina or a Republican in Connecticut having a hard time effecting that. So all else fails, you can move to a more agreeable state. A good example is the "tax flight" from New York, to a state with a lesser tax burden. No independent states, no real option.
Don't fall for this psychological crap from any one percent goon. It's an obvious attempt to divert our attention from the obscene, unjust, immoral, and illogical concentration of wealth. Donald Trump went on record the other day telling us to blame the government instead of Wall Street and the richest one percent. His goons are obviously online and on air trying to divert our attention. Don't fall for it. Just keep protesting no matter what the one percent goons say or do. Our message is vital. Below is my two cents:
We have been mislead by Reagan, Bush Sr, Clinton, Bush Jr, Obama, and nearly every other public figure. Economic growth, job creation, and actual prosperity are not necessarily a package deal. In fact, the first two are horribly misunderstood. Economic growth/loss (GDP) is little more than a measure of wealth changing hands. A transfer of currency from one party to another. The rate at which it is traded. This was up until mid ’07′ however, has never been a measure of actual prosperity. Neither has job creation. The phrase itself has been thrown around so often, and in such a generic political manner, that it has come to mean nothing. Of course, we need to have certain things done for the benefit of society as a whole. We need farmers, builders, manufacturers, transporters, teachers, cops, firefighters, soldiers, mechanics, sanitation workers, doctors, managers, and visionaries. Their work is vital. I’ll even go out on a limb and say that we need politicians, attorneys, bankers, investors, and entertainers. In order to keep them productive, we must provide reasonable incentives. We need to compensate each by a fair measure for their actual contributions to society. We need to provide a reasonable scale of income opportunity for every independent adult, every provider, and share responsibility for those who have a legitimate need for aid. In order to achieve and sustain this, we must also address the cost of living and the distribution of wealth. Here, we have failed miserably. The majority have already lost their home equity, their financial security, and their relative buying power. The middle class have actually lost much of their ability to make ends meet, re-pay loans, pay taxes, and support their own economy. The lower class have gone nearly bankrupt. In all, its a multi-trillion dollar loss taken over about 30 years. Millions are under the impression that we need to create more jobs simply to provide more opportunity. as if that would solve the problem. It won’t. Not by a longshot. Jobs don’t necessarily create wealth. In fact, they almost never do. For the mostpart, they only transfer wealth from one party to another. A gain here. A loss there. Appreciation in one community. Depreciation in another. In order to create net wealth, you must harvest a new resource or make more efficient use of one. Either way you must have a reliable and ethical system in place to distribute that newly created wealth in order to benefit society as a whole and prevent a lagging downside. The ‘free market’ just doesn’t cut it. Its a farce. Many of the jobs created are nothing but filler. The promises empty. Sure, unemployment reached an all-time low under Bush. GDP reached an all-time high. But those are both shallow and misleading indicators. In order to gauge actual prosperity, you must consider the economy in human terms. As of ’08′ the average American was working more hours than the previous generation with far less equity to show for it. Consumer debt, forclosure, and bankruptcy were also at all-time highs. As of ’08′, every major American city was riddled with depressed communities, neglected neighborhoods, failing infrastructures, lost revenue, and gang activity. All of this has coincided with massive economic growth and job creation. Meanwhile, the rich have been getting richer and richer and richer even after taxes. Our nation’s wealth has been concentrated. Again, this represents a multi-trillion dollar loss taken by the majority. Its an absolute deal breaker. Bottom line: With or without economic growth or job creation, you must have a system in place to prevent too much wealth from being concentrated at the top. Unfortunately, we don’t. Our economy has become nothing but a giant game of Monopoly. The richest one percent already own nearly 1/2 of all United States wealth. More than double their share before Reagan took office. Still, they want more. They absolutely will not stop. Now, our society as a whole is in serious jeapordy. Greed kills.
Mcc, Have you not realized yet that your "wall of text copy-pasta" is annoying and nobody reads it? Just post the link to whatever site you copied it from.
Lol yeah, I've seen it 50 times and never bothered reading it. Needs paragraph breaks at least.
The earliest post of Mcc's content that I could find on google was back in Jul 23, 2009. There were many posts of the same content since then on various blogs.
I've gotten a dozen compliments today. I have a strategy just like everyone else.
Hmm, I will read it sometime. But you may be preaching to the converted on this forum.
Well just based on my own observations of the ratings of your comments, your strategy is a complete and utter failure. Seriously, just create a post for that text and paste a link to it.