Silly Pollsters
Mar. 29th, 2010 03:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rowynI really want to find the actual poll cited in this article but I haven't. Because this looks like the silliest poll question I've seen outside of an internet meme in quite a while:
From various sources (such as this one) "70 percent of those who sympathize with the tea-party movement ... want a federal government that fosters job creation."
Was that really the question? "Do you want a federal government that fosters job creation?" Really? What were the other 30% thinking, do you suppose? "No, I want a federal government that crushes the economy and destroys jobs, that way the revolution will come sooner"? I mean, seriously. What was the pollster who wrote this thinking? I wonder what the other questions were like. "Do you want access to quality health care?" "Are you in favor of clean air?" "Do you oppose murder?" :D
(hat tip to James Taranto of Best of the Web for calling attention to the poll.)
Edit:
Ah, the original poll is here, and the question appears to have been "Please tell me if this is something with which you strongly agree, mostly agree, mostly disagree, or strongly disagree: 'The government needs to do a lot more to create jobs'". Which doesn't sound quite as silly as "Should the government foster job creation?" But it still doesn't really tell me whether the people who agreed thought that the government should do more to create jobs by, say, spending $500 billion on infrastructure, or by eliminating corporate income taxes, or by firing themselves so their salaries can be redistributed back to taxpayers, or whatever. Moreover, it still seems badly worded to me -- strong disagreement might mean "No, I think the government is doing just the right amount" or it might mean "I don't want the government to do anything with regards to jobs, ever, including the stuff I think they're doing wrong right now."
From various sources (such as this one) "70 percent of those who sympathize with the tea-party movement ... want a federal government that fosters job creation."
Was that really the question? "Do you want a federal government that fosters job creation?" Really? What were the other 30% thinking, do you suppose? "No, I want a federal government that crushes the economy and destroys jobs, that way the revolution will come sooner"? I mean, seriously. What was the pollster who wrote this thinking? I wonder what the other questions were like. "Do you want access to quality health care?" "Are you in favor of clean air?" "Do you oppose murder?" :D
(hat tip to James Taranto of Best of the Web for calling attention to the poll.)
Edit:
Ah, the original poll is here, and the question appears to have been "Please tell me if this is something with which you strongly agree, mostly agree, mostly disagree, or strongly disagree: 'The government needs to do a lot more to create jobs'". Which doesn't sound quite as silly as "Should the government foster job creation?" But it still doesn't really tell me whether the people who agreed thought that the government should do more to create jobs by, say, spending $500 billion on infrastructure, or by eliminating corporate income taxes, or by firing themselves so their salaries can be redistributed back to taxpayers, or whatever. Moreover, it still seems badly worded to me -- strong disagreement might mean "No, I think the government is doing just the right amount" or it might mean "I don't want the government to do anything with regards to jobs, ever, including the stuff I think they're doing wrong right now."
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Date: 2010-03-30 12:37 am (UTC)If you want the government intimately involved in fine-tuning the economy by trying to shift taxes away from and give regulatroy exceptions for people starting new businesses, then you might say yes, and think of yourself as being a small-government activist who wants to reign in spending.
I think you're really not in that case, since you're making things even more complicated and increasing the deficit, but whatever.