The Pew Research Center periodically surveys Americans to gauge their concerns regarding major national issues. Not surprisingly, the levels of concerns vary from year to year depending on which issues are on most Americans’ radars. The latest data in the chart below was gathered by Pew in January. I find it very interesting.
To the surprise of some, including your editor, Americans said “Strengthening [the] economy” was their greatest concern by a fairly large margin. Never mind that the US economy just delivered its strongest year of economic growth in 37 years, with Gross Domestic Product soaring at an annual rate of 5.7% in 2021.
Yet 71% of adults surveyed said strengthening the economy is their #1 Concern. Only 28% rate economic conditions as excellent or good.
I think the public views the economy as considerably weaker than it currently is because the mainstream media continually tells them how bad the economy is, how bad America is in general — and most Americans apparently believe it. I find that sad, but that’s a discussion for another day.
The public’s concern about the economy also comes at a time when inflation in the US has hit a 40-year high of 7.9%, as reported this morning, and gas prices just hit an all-time record high of $4.25 a gallon yesterday. Large majorities of Americans say prices for food and consumer goods (89%), gas prices (82%) and the cost of housing (79%) are much worse than they were a year ago.
Concerns about the economy were followed by “Reducing health care costs” and “Dealing with coronavirus outbreak” as the #2 (61%) and #3 (60%) top concerns. Only about half of Americans currently view “Improving [the] job situation” as a top priority (52%), compared with 67% last year.
Coronavirus: Dealing with the coronavirus outbreak ranked among Americans’ top three policy concerns in the January survey, but Americans view it as less important than they did last year. Six-in-ten people now say it should be a major priority, down from 78% who said this in 2021.
The share who say dealing with the pandemic should be a top policy priority has fallen among members of both political parties, but the decline is steeper among Republicans: 60% said the pandemic was a top priority a year ago, compared with only 35% today. Among Democrats, 93% viewed it as a major priority last year, compared with 80% now.
Younger people are also less likely to identify this as important than older Americans. Roughly half of adults under 50 (54%) say dealing with the coronavirus should be a top priority, compared with 61% of adults ages 50 to 64, and 72% of those ages 65 and older.
Nearly two-thirds of women (65%) say that this should be a top priority for the president and Congress this year. A smaller share of men (54%) say the same.
Immigration Policy: This year, 67% of Republicans view immigration as a top priority, compared with just 35% of Democrats. Overall, about half of Americans (49%) say that dealing with immigration should be a major priority for the president and Congress this year, up 10 points from a year ago. At that time, identical shares of Republicans and Democrats (39% each) said dealing with the issue of immigration should be a top priority.
Although the Biden administration has acted on a number of fronts to reverse more restrictive Trump-era immigration policies, deportation remained an important concern for many Americans who have immigrated to this country, especially Latinos. Upon taking office, The Biden administration and Department of Homeland Security dramatically reined in deportation practices of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Climate Change: Dealing with global climate change was among the most politically divisive issues on the January survey. Roughly two-thirds of Democrats (65%) say this should be a top priority for Biden and Congress this year, compared with just 11% of Republicans.
Views also differ based on age. Adults under 30 are the only age group in which a majority (54%) say global climate change should be a top priority. This compares with 42% of those ages 30 to 49, 36% of those ages 50 to 64 and 39% of those age 65 and older.
In a survey conducted in April 2021, majorities of Americans said the federal government was doing too little to reduce the effects of global climate change (59%) and to protect important aspects of the environment including air quality (59%), water quality of lakes, rivers and streams (63%) and animals and their habitats (57%).
Finally, you’ll notice that “Dealing with climate change” came in at #14 on Pew’s list of 18 top concerns. Climate change consistently ranks low in such surveys measuring Americans’ worries. Despite that, the mainstream media does its best to keep us believing otherwise.
That, too, is another discussion for another day. I’ll leave it there for today.
It’s no wonder only a minority are concerned about climate change. Most people in this country can’t think beyond the next paycheck. Most of the rest think “who cares what happens after I’m dead”. And of the small remainder, they think the LGM (last glacial maximum), 20,000 years ago, was in deep time.
For the handful that are left, we know Deep Time ended with the dinosaur-killing impact. Everything after that is “recent”. And the LGM was just a blink of time ago. And we care not just about our (living) grandchildren, but their grandchildren, etc.
Lastly, I (and most of this blog’s readers) don’t give a crap about gas prices. It’s not a big component of my or my daughters’ budgets.
And I don’t care much about car prices either. I realize I’m a fortunate minority.