Twitter
StumbleUpon
Facebook
Delicious
Digg
Newsvine
Google
Yahoo
TechnoratiPoll: World Has Little Confidence in Leaders' Economic Measures
WASHINGTON - As President Barack Obama and other world leaders meet in Italy, a global survey released Thursday reflects wide concern that governments won't meet their budgets in this economic climate - and a universal preference to respond by cutting services rather than raising taxes.
What kinds of cuts? The top choices internationally in the Ipsos/McClatchy poll were reducing aid to foreign countries (57 percent) and cutting the salaries and benefits of government workers (56 percent). People drew a distinction, however, between general foreign aid and disaster relief, which few wanted to reduce.
Cutting military spending was the third most popular choice (43 percent), though less popular in the United States, where only 35 percent favored it.
Least popular internationally were cuts to education and health care (only 4 percent favored each). Only 9 percent of the international respondents favored slashing social welfare, but 20 percent of Americans were willing to clip welfare recipients.
If higher taxes become necessary, the most palatable targets internationally were cigarettes (65 percent), alcohol (53 percent) and junk food (35 percent), all of which were preferred to raising corporate, property, vehicle or sales taxes.
While just 33 percent internationally expressed confidence that their governments could meet their budgets, two nations stood out in contrast: Eighty-three percent were confident that China would stay on budget, and 77 percent said so of India.
Respondents said that the most important indicator of economic recovery would be reduced unemployment rates (63 percent). Increasing the value of a nation's currency and sustained stock-market gains also were seen as key.
These findings were drawn from 23,000 surveys conducted online from April 14 to May 7 as part of a semiannual study that takes weeks to tally.
The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points. The respondents come from the U.S., Canada, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, South Korea, China, Japan, Australia, Russia, India, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Turkey, Sweden, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Great Britain.
5 Comments so far
Show AllThis worldwide lack of confidence in government raises the question as to whether or not the public in these same countries, facing as they do an almost certain shattering of their way of life, would favor replacing their politico-economic system with something else. Government of, for and by the people, for example, since it's never been tried. What we have is so-called indirect or representative democracy and look where that's gotten us. What instead? Direct or do it ourselves democracy, made possible now by way of the Internet. Otherwise? The abyss.
'Cutting military spending was the third most popular choice (43 percent), though less popular in the United States, where only 35 percent favored it.'
There is a proverb that goes 'The Apple Does Not Fall Far From The Tree'. I would like to change that into 'The Tree Does Not Grow Far From The Apples'.
No wonder that people here in the US prefer homelessness, starvation, miseducation, unhealthy care, pollution and the general degradation of society over cuts in military spending.
Makes it a lot easier for the MIC to syphon and suck out massive amounts of fantasy money called 'dollar' from people that are so dedicated to militarism. Yes, You might call that Fascism too,
but folks still believe those are all Germans and wear black leather uniforms.
The rotten tree called militarism draws its life force out of the soil on which it is planted. A soil soaked with generously spilled blood, good fertilizer for the MIC.
The truth about all this is, that most people on Earth have had enough already. With losers as leaders the prospects of a sustainable future are dimming quickly. I wonder what those heroes come up with to survive their own mess.
Here on tghe Big Island things are going very well. There are more brand new big size SUV's and trucks on the road than ever before. Most of them bear the 'CoH' licence plate. County of Hawai'i that is. Send Your gas guzzling turds to Hawai'i, the local boys here love'em. The less miles to the gallon the better. They eagerly follow the policymakers examples.
Speaking about losers as leaders we heard about the worst governor ever, after proclaiming in 2007 that Hawai'i had the biggest surplus in history. Now the same person dishes out furloughs. Talking about incompetance. Criminal mismanagement is a better fit.
We owe our present misery/disaster to an unchecked government that had become a farce after 9/11, an even bigger one than before.
In the end people will realize that You can't eat weapons after everything edible has been killed off. Well, You are right, there is still the 'Soylent Green' solution.
May All Beings Be Blessed.
No Restrictions Or Limitations Shall Apply.
Incredible that raising corporate taxes is so low on the preference list. The taxes paid by the big corporations were drastically reduced during the Bush years. They used the extra money to speculate in hedge funds, commodities, housing and other shady deals, which brought on the current economic collapse. Peoples answers in the poll reflect the extent of the systematic desinformation produced in the MSM about the disfunctional world political-economic system.
In a 2003 World Economic Forum poll concerning leadership - that is, who people trusted to lead them, only NGO leaders had the trust of a clear majority; followed by UN and spiritual/religious leaders, then leaders of Western Europe and economic managers, then corporate executives. Far below, at the very bottom, were the leaders of the United States.
Sell the Pentagram and it's 800 imperial fortresses!