Sunday, February 15, 2009

1979 vs. 2009

The New York Times and CBS has some nice new data out on a range of controversial issues. In this PDF, they compare the data to records they have from the late 1970s.

Here are a few I found notable:

HEALTH INSURANCE: PRIVATE ENTERPRISE VS. GOVERNMENT?

1979
Private Enterprise: 48%
Government - All Problems: 28%
Government - Emergencies: 12%
Don't know: 12%

2009
Private Enterprise: 32% (-16%)
Government - All Problems: 49% (+21%)
Government - Emergencies: 10% (-2%)
Don't know: 9% (-3%)

HOMOSEXUAL RELATIONS BETWEEN ADULTS

1979
Wrong: 62%
Not Wrong: 25%

2009
Wrong: 41% (-21%)
Not Wrong: 54% (+29%)

SHOULD MARIJUANA USE BE LEGALIZED?

1979
Yes: 27%
No: 69%

2009
Yes: 41% (+14%)
No: 52% (-17%)

WHO MAKES BETTER CARS?

1979
U.S. Automakers - 46%
Foreign Automakers - 26%

2009
U.S. Automakers - 29% (-17%)
Foreign Automakers - 55% (+29%)
Hat tip to this daily kos diary

3 comments:

Bo said...

Does the health care data represent % of people who use private vs public insurance or do those percentages represent the % of people who want private vs public insurance? If it's the first, the poll does not really say anything. Lots of people have medicare and medicaid/schip very slowly expands, which would account for the increase.

Dan said...

It's the later - it's the percentage of people who want to provide insurance.

I agree - we're probably getting close to 50 percent of people with gov't run healthcare.

Bo said...

Yeah in my hpa class, the professor mentioned how over half (I forget the actual %) the costs of health care in the US is already paid by the government.