People who feel financially secure vote, people who aren’t secure don’t, according to a Pew Research Center report released this morning. And because financially insecure Americans disproportionately identify with the Democratic Party, Democrats face a structural disadvantage, especially in mid-term elections. In 2014, fully 94% of the most financially secure Americans were registered to vote, compared to only 54% of the least secure; 63% of the most secure were likely voters, versus only 20% of the least secure.Though I doubt we'd get the following result if surveyed:
40% of all Americans think that government does a better job than people give it credit for compared to 56% who believe that it is almost always wasteful and inefficient.New Zealanders aren't as cynical about government as Americans - yet.
I might be wrong.
2 comments:
Our lack of cynicism may be justified.
Our schools (over 90% of kids go to state schools) rank high in things like the PISA tests
Our hospitals give us a high life expectancy compared to our GDP/head
and our public services rate really highly when it comes to things like lack of corruption and technical efficiency (e.g. you get a passport in weeks in NZ - in most OECD countries it takes months)
Americans cannot say the same thing about their schools, hospitals or their public services.
On the other hand, America (until Obama ruined it) used to have a Capitalist economy. NZ does not - we have socialism.
Americans cannot say the same thing about their schools, hospitals or their public services.
You have obviously never lived in the US. The quality of US private schools and healthcare is by far the best in the world! If you choose not to pay for that quality, that's your personal choice. In NZ you don't have that choice --- other than by moving to the US, as more and more high-achieving Kiwis do every day.
It really is that simple.
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