SS privatization

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

>Think the bear market has killed Social Security privatization? Fox 
>News reports on a recent poll:
>
>>Sixty-eight percent of respondents favored private accounts, a 
>>margin of well more than two-to-one. Respondents aged 30-49 rang in 
>>favor of private accounts at 76 percent, ages 18-29 at 82 percent. 
>>Democrats favored them 56 to 40 percent. Independents at 67-31 
>>percent. White, black, Hispanic, union, conservative, moderate, 
>>even self-described liberals -- all favored private accounts over 
>>the current system by a margin of at least 16 percent.
>>There was no demographic group in which less than 54 percent of 
>>respondents favored private accounts. The closest gap was among 
>>seniors -- aged 65 and up -- and even they favored private accounts 
>>by a margin of 55-40.
>
>The cultists at the Elliott Wave Theorist 
><http://www.elliottwave.com> point out: "The poll was conducted this 
>past July 8-12, four days when the Dow Industrials dropped some 700 
>points."
>
>The bull lives on in many minds.
>
>Doug

The bull lives mainly in the minds of the rich!  The poll in question 
was "commissioned by the Cato Institute and conducted by Zogby 
International," with a sample that over-represents the well off, 
better educated, born-again, and/or Southerners.

*****   Methodology
This survey of 1,205 likely voters nationwide was conducted from 5 
p.m. on Thursday, July 29, through 2:30 p.m. on Monday, August 2, 
1999. All calls were made from Zogby International headquarters in 
Utica, N.Y. The margin of error is +/- 3.0 percent.

Sample Characteristics

Characteristic       Frequency     Percent
Total                 1205          100.0

East                   298           24.7
South                  369           30.6
Central/Great Lakes    352           29.2
West                   186           15.4
<snip>
Less than high school   76            6.3
H.S. education         306           25.4
Some college           365           30.3
College graduate+      458           38.0
<snip>
Roman Catholic         299           25.0
Protestant             527           44.1
Jewish                  15            1.3
Other (religion)       356           29.7
Born-again             257           49.0
Not born-again         268           51.0
<snip>
Less than $15,000      122           11.1
$15,000-24,999         163           14.7
$25,000-34,999         165           14.9
$35,000-49,000         209           18.9
$50,000-74,999         222           20.1
$75,000 or more        224           20.3

<http://www.socialsecurity.org/zogby/fullreport.pdf>   *****

The report doesn't say so clearly, but it appears (based on the 
wording in the report) that the dollar figures refer to individual 
earnings, not household incomes.
-- 
Yoshie

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