T-D survey: Most say stimulus funding won’t save economy
The government can't buy its way out of this recession, and it shouldn't even be trying. That's the general agreement of respondents to a Richmond Times-Dispatch online survey about federal stimulus spending.
Government's role in our lives -- whether it does too much or not enough -- will be the topic of tomorrow night's Public Square at the newspaper's downtown offices.
A vast majority of respondents to last week's survey said stimulus funding won't save the economy and that the government has no business running car companies, setting executive compensation or providing national health care.
"While it may have been beneficial to prop up the financial industry, I am a believer in the capitalist system to weather the storm on its own and right itself," said survey participant Jeb Hockman, a 57-year-old public-relations specialist from Henrico County.
"The current conditions are painful, but those companies that emerge from the recession will be stronger in the long term. . . . I am still concerned that we could have another downturn, but I think the economy will right itself if left alone."
That free-market spirit was prevalent among 488 responses, with most people saying they would rather let weak companies die than have the government prop them up.
"I believe in free enterprise," said Margaret Johnson, a 66-year-old retiree in Richmond. "Quite simply, I don't believe this is the role of government. The government can't afford to bail out every single segment of this economy. . . . We are going to be bankrupt. . . . Who will then bail out our country? China?"
Federal ownership of automakers elicited the most consistent response, with 84 percent of participants wanting the government to steer clear of Detroit.
"If the automobile industry in the United States can't run their own industry without government help, then they probably should be allowed to go under," said Wayne Staples, 61, an environmental engineer who lives in Chesterfield County.
"The automakers dug their own holes by their past practices," said Jean Scott, 55, a Chesterfield resident who is a librarian at Virginia Commonwealth University. "They need to regroup and begin with new design ideas to make more fuel-efficient, better-engineered cars. If they do that, the public will buy."
The prevailing thought was that overall economic recovery would have to be natural and not forced.
"Government can only redistribute money, not generate it," said Mike Clayton, 55, of Chesterfield, who is semi-retired from a career in engineering and construction. "Small, private businesses must lead the economic turnaround."
"First, spending your way out of debt is impossible," added William Kahl, a 66-year-old retiree in Chesterfield who worked for 40 years in the finance department at DuPont. "Second, except for possibly the military, anything that the government runs is inefficient; thus, taking over private business will be no different."
Distrust of government also was evident in survey responses, with few people saying their elected leaders had the capacity to lead the country out of the current malaise.
"The government has spent billions in taxpayer dollars assisting banks and corporations, yet these same banks routinely fail to pass this assistance on to individuals," said Martin Mills, 62, a federal government retiree who works as a computer consultant from his Amelia County home.
"Just think how well the economy would have been stimulated if the government had paid off home mortgages rather than bailing out greedy banking officials."
Not everyone favored a hands-off approach. A minority of respondents said they thought government spending was a necessary and effective means of getting the country back on its feet.
"The Fed and Treasury programs have prevented real economic disaster, while the Main Street economy is gradually working through the de-leveraging and rationalization processes necessary in a recession," said Ward Waltman, a 59-year-old federal retiree who lives in Hanover County.
"I am optimistic that the federal government will increase its oversight and regulation of the financial markets, which would still allow growth and innovation but provide greater stability to the whole economy in the future."
Contact Zachary Reid at (804) 775-8179 or
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No quick fix
Last week, the Richmond Times-Dispatch invited readers to fill out a short, informal survey online that sought their opinions about government and the economy. The majority of the 488 respondents said they did not feel confident that the government can solve the country's economic problems, particularly with stimulus money. Here are the questions we asked and the responses:
Will the government stimulus program save the economy? NO: 75 percent, YES: 25 percent
Should the federal government be involved in running the automobile manufacturers? NO: 84 percent, YES: 16 percent
Should the federal government create and manage a universal health-care system? NO: 67 percent, YES: 33 percent
Should the government have control over the compensation of executives of financial institutions? NO: 70 percent, YES: 30 percent
Do you feel better about the economy now than you did six months ago? NO: 54 percent, YES: 46 percent
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The problems with polls other than the obvious risks of poorly worded questions, insufficiently large samples, and other technical or sampling errors, are that there are far too many, reported results do not necessarily correspond to actual results, and we rely on polls rather than critical thinking. If legislators and individual citizens, especially citizens, would discipline themselves to objectively investigate and thoughtfully evaluate issues, we’d all be much better off. As it is, we wait for others - whether or not they are knowledgeable, informed, or objective - to tell us what to think and how to act.
Here’s how the questions should have been worded…
1. Will the government stimulus program HELP save the economy? (Nobody thinks the plan will signlehandedly SAVE the economy/world)
2. Should the federal government provide bankruptsy support to failing American companies? (Of course the federal government shouldn’t be an auto-manufacturer. They are buying ownership in a company that would otherwise disappear.)
3. Should your healthcare be managed by government sponsored programs or by profit-driven insurance conglomerates? (tougher choice)
4. Should the government have control over the compensation of executives of financial institutions or should executives at banks that are subsidized by government loans be allowed to convert your tax dollars directly to personal income in the form of bonuses for running a failed company? (remember when you were all mad about AIG? RABBLE RABBLE RABBLE!)
5. What is there to say about 5? In the middle of a recession almost half of the country is more optimistic than they were under bush. Wow.
It’s all in how you ask the questions, people are stupid. Rephrase and ask the essentially the same question and see what the idiots say. They cant decide for themselves folks! “Should the federal government be involved in running the automobile manufactures?“ Give me a break.
It sounds like the respondants were peole with a great job or retired from a great job. I’m pretty sure people who were standing in line with 500 other people at a job fair would think differently. It’s easy for them to say, let them go under or let the economy right itself, they have a job!
The headline for this supposed survey should have read"DO YOU; LIKE RUSH, HOPE HE FAILS”! What am I missing here? Lets see, if you are on a boat and you don’t like the captain, do you really want the boat to sink? This is TALIBAN thinking.Shame on the RTD. Your kind of guys have sailed us into a hurricane, and you are still promoting their virtures and ideology and “none leadership”.
Here is yet another poll with no description of the population polled and no margin of error. There was a time when polls had some validity, but the polls the RTD publishes are comical and useless. I never saw the poll either and I’m on this site frequently. No one asked me, but I’m totally against the stimulus package.
What’s wrong with those questions? They are to the point and reflect exactly what is happening and/or what the current administration wants to have happen. If the fact that your heart and mind say “no” even though you’ve drunk the cool-aid, that’s okay, your starting to see the light.
488 may or may not be a valid sample with a certain level of confidence, depending upon how it was derived. In the case of this survey, it does not appear to be a valid representative survey since it only “invited readers to fill out a short, informal survey.“ In other words, it is a self-selected sample and not randomly derived. The story has some mild human interest, but it is not valid and not news, and certainly not worthy of the front page.
Let’s do this poll… when the stimulus effect and the shift if consumer sentiment survey all show things are getting better… so we can what? Bring up an old point that has already been proven wrong?
“Does your grandmother still horde string, rubber bands and cotton swabs so she will be ready when it happens again?“
ramgrl… if you knew anything about polling you’d know 488 people IS a representative sample for a local poll. Do you think when these polls about Obama are taken that they survey 100,000 people? They rarely survey more than 800 nationally. These guys surveyed about 500 locally. VERY representative sample.
It’s good to see Richmond still has its wits about it with regard to government spending.
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