Segment #3: Stupid Poll Question Produces Stupid Results
Amidst Congress' upcoming fight over the debt ceiling for the gazillionth time in the last decade, statistically demented and so-called "liberal media" outlet The Hill decided to put its intellectual deficiency to good use, and ran a poll among Americans to see how they feel about the debt ceiling.
The results of the poll would seem to be "disastrous" for Joe Biden and the Democrats! A majority of Americans OPPOSE raising the debt ceiling, by a margin of 52-46%. "Democrats in disarray!" "The world is crumbling!" "Is this the end of Joe Biden's presidency as we know it???"
Ok, let's just calm down a bit. First off, most Americans are not like you and me; they don't spend a huge chunk of their time paying attention to the finer details of American politics, especially in years when there isn't an election. And that's okay - some people would like to not burn their extra money on blood pressure medication. So sure, maybe they'll answer a pollster because they're bored and it's a bit exciting to be part of a survey, but they are not going to understand the detailed points of the questions.
In the complete abstract, the "debt ceiling" sounds like something that prevents the government from spending too much money (or not taking in enough money, which is the actual issue) that it fiscally eats itself alive. Most Americans want their government to help them, but 31 trillion dollars is sort of a scary number that they would like to go away. They don't quite know where it comes from, but they know it's not a good thing. And the debt ceiling, to any innocent American voter, would sound like a good mechanism to stop a runaway budget.
For the small minority of us who spend too much time watching the news, we actually know that the debt ceiling is essentially the big red button that will instantly vaporize the world economy. Raising the debt limit does not authorize any new spending, and it doesn't require raising taxes to do it. But for any news organization like The Hill to believe that someone in Pennsylvania working at a fast food restaurant who picks up the phone at 9 pm for a pollster is going to know exactly how the budget process works is ludicrous. The headline could literally read "52 Percent of Americans are at least partially suicidal; they want to crash the world economy" and it would be accurate because the premise of the survey is without any merit at all.
Here's the exact wording of the question: "Do you support or oppose raising the federal debt ceiling to deal with the federal budget deficit?"
Nice one, guys. The people who answered the poll are probably thinking "should we allow government to go more into debt?" And they would probably answer no, because they think debt is scary and bad! You declined to mention the fact that not raising the debt limit would be economic armageddon, which is extremely important to a lot of these people! I can guarantee you that if a pollster asked, "If the federal debt ceiling is not raised, the United States will default on its payments, social security benefits will no longer be paid, interest rates will triple, our credit rating will be downgraded to the lowest of all 1st world countries, at least 6 million - possibly 10 million people will lose their jobs, our economy will be locked into stagflation with an unemployment rate between 7-10% and an inflation rate over 5% for likely the next decade, and no investors will trust the U.S. Dollar for a generation. Do you support raising the debt limit?" I'm pretty sure the results of that poll are gonna be just a little different.
Congratulations, The Hill. You suck.
Comments
Post a Comment