Gloomy Mood Partly Tied to Income Levels, Bloomberg Poll Finds By Heidi Przybyla March 14 (Bloomberg) -- How gloomy Americans are about the direction of the country and President George W. Bush's leadership depends on how much money they make. Twenty-three percent of all Americans said the country is on the right track, a 15-year low, according to a new Bloomberg poll. Among those with higher incomes, 43 percent said the country is on the right path. Three-fifths of Americans disapproved of the job Bush is doing, compared with 38 percent who approved. Among those with household income higher than $100,000, the gap is smaller, with 53 percent disapproving and 46 percent approving. ``That's the history of the world and it's also the history of the United States,'' said Stephen Hess, a presidential scholar at the Brookings Institution in Washington. Public opinion ``is always very directly related to how well you're doing and how well you think you're going to do.'' The March 3-11 survey followed the Dow Jones Industrial Average's Feb. 27 fall, its worst in four years, and was conducted during a week when Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff was convicted of perjury and a scandal erupted over conditions at the Army's Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington. In certain areas the differences between the affluent and the general population were particularly sharp. Asked about the impact of free-trade policies, a plurality of all Americans said they have hurt the economy, while a plurality of high earners said they have been beneficial. Economic Performance Wealthier Americans also have a more favorable opinion of Bush's handling of the economy, with 52 percent approving of Bush's record while just 43 percent of all Americans approve. About 2 in 10 U.S. households have income of more than $100,000. On the Iraq war, more high earners approved of Bush's policies and they were significantly more critical of a Democratic plan to withdraw troops by March of next year. Forty- nine percent of high earners oppose the plan, to just 39 percent of all Americans. Evan Davidson, a 44-year-old financial firm recruiter who participated in the poll, said in a follow-up interview that Bush deserves to be judged on issues other than the war. ``The economy is doing fairly well, the market is doing extremely well,'' said Davidson, an independent who lives in Grapevine, Texas. ``It's had a few corrections, which is normal. Overall there's a lot of money out there for investing.'' Income Inequality Still, on some issues, higher-income households expressed similar levels of pessimism as the general public. For instance, roughly 7 in 10 said the gap between the rich and the poor in the U.S. has become a serious problem. That's in line with the 81 percent of all Americans who said it's a grave concern. ``I'm worried about the middle class disappearing,'' said Anna Fugate, a 42-year-old jewelry designer from Fort Wayne, Indiana, whose household takes in more than $100,000 a year. ``It's getting worse, at least people around me are doing worse,'' said Fugate, an independent. A large majority of affluent respondents also voiced skepticism about Bush's pledge to balance the federal budget in five years while continuing to fund military and reconstruction programs in Iraq and making his tax cuts permanent. Sixty-five percent of high earners called that goal unrealistic, to 74 percent of all Americans who said so. Executive Pay Finally, wealthier Americans agreed with the 86 percent of the general public that said most chief executives of large American companies are paid too much. Eighty-three percent of high earners agreed. In the poll of 2,269 adults, 39 percent with incomes above $100,000 said they were Republican. Twenty-eight percent said they were independent and 26 percent identified themselves as Democrats. Bush is still struggling to maintain majority support from some of his most loyal constituents. While wealthy Americans viewed him more favorably than less well-off respondents, Bush scored lower than 50 percent on questions about overall job performance and Iraq policy. On the economy, his majority was within the poll's 2 percentage-point margin of error. The survey showed Bush's ratings have slipped among high- income earners. In January, 51 percent approved of his job performance; only 46 percent gave him high marks in the latest poll. Bush also lost 7 points since January among the wealthy on his handling of the economy and 5 points on his handling of the Iraq conflict. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20670001&refer=politics&sid=aYGFL2fwC9i8
Well, no shit Sherlock! Gee, successful people who happen to make more money than some whiney lozzers are happier. Thanks for that news flash! Of course they did it on the backs of the less fortunate.