i agree with you on most of this, any stats will be misleading in some respect... but removing the top 15% spenders (an oversimplification to say that, i know, but still, close enough i think) its sure going to give you a very skewed picture: worth / "value" of any goods is determined but what the market can and does pay... the top 15% are key to determining the balance of prices (think RE but not only) in a particular country... thats why i prefer per capita comparisons on a PPP basis (and preferably over comparable-size human groups)... i posted some years back in the economy section... will do a search later and for the rest i was simply teasing
I didn't mean to misrepresent this dataset as being current to today as you noted that it is not, I should point out that it is based on 01/06 exchange rates as stated so on the wiki page. Also, the polls which are the subject of the thread are from last year. I believe that they are more negative currently.
the poll question introduced relates to satisfaction of "direction headed" -- which supposedly has only one acceptable answer due to the fact that the US has electricity and firefighters. apparently any question whether the federal government should continue to flush billions of dollars of its citizens' wealth down the iraq toilet is obviated by the fact that the US has a lot of motels. stocked shelves in supermarkets means only a crybaby would wonder if warrantless wiretapping and incarcerating US citizens without a trial for 4 years are bad ideas. parts of new orleans still in ruins, but that's cool because you can get a helicopter ride to a hospital. hey, darfur has it worse -- so bombs away, sell the chinese more debt, put the fiat money pump in high gear, set up some more entitlement programs, open the mexican border, and fuck all that Bill of Rights and privacy crap.
Nice points, but let's say we pull out of Iraq tomorrow, send the money saved to new orleans and pay down the debt, and close the border. Will a lot of Americans become satisfied with the direction again? Is that all it will take? If so, whichever party does this is going to become extremely popular and will be shoe-ins for elected offices for years to come, so why do you suppose that no one is doing it? Why are those candidates who are standing up and proudly proclaiming they would pull out of Iraq now, on the bottom of the polls?
You must be looking at some internet poll or text message poll which is useless. I have not seen a real poll yet with Paul higher than 1%. Governor Bill Richardson is campaigning on a fast Iraq pullout. His poll numbers are in the low to mid single digits. Politicians seek popularity and chase votes. If what the previous poster purports were true, here should be a golden opportunity for them.
This type of voting can never be an accurate representation. People were not polled, votes were merely counted on the internet or text message system. There is a major difference. This is not the correct answer of why the parties and candidates do not give the majority what they think they want (Although the house Dems ran on it just to get into office recently).
What is their motive for this? Sorry, but the idea makes no sense. The media would love nothing more than a maverick underdog like Paul to become a hit with voters. They would have a blast with this story- it would have lots of legs, lots of interest, lots of ratings and generate tons of discussion. The truth is, it simply does not exist. If he ever scores well in a real poll and the media does not cover that, (which will not happen, they will be all over the story) then you can say what you are saying now and it will be the truth rather than just a romantic notion.
You raise some good questions. The truth is the public's views on these and other issues are not totally clear. They want out of the Iraq mess but don't want to hand al qaeda a victory, except for the kool aid democrats. They want illegal immigration stopped but want cheap and efficient people to do work around their house. They are dead set against "amnesty" but think illegals who have lived and worked here should have a path to citizenship. They want wasteful spending eliminated unless they personally benefit from it. They want social security reformed but are against all the reforms that would make it viable. Add in democrats who are determined to foil any possible success Bush could have, a hostile media and repeated screwups by the administration and you have a public that is frustrated and angry. They just don't know who or what they're angry at.