Failure of Institutions

I guess the theme around here today will be the failure of our institutions. Take a gander at the graphic in this article that’s making the rounds on how Americans are losing faith in our institutions. The institutions in which the most confidence has been lost since 2002? The presidency, Congress, banks. Clearly, George W. Bush is proximally responsible for a good bit of loss of confidence in the presidency but, equally clearly, President Obama hasn’t restore that confidence, either. I wonder if measure would change if the points of comparison were between, say, 1998 and 2012 rather than 2002 and 2012.

Institutions that have seen confidence in them increase? Somewhat to my surprise religion, healthcare, criminal justice. That actually makes me a bit ill.

4 comments… add one
  • michael reynolds Link

    I’m not sure people mean what you think they mean. People have greater confidence in medicine because they think it’s getting better at curing diseases. I doubt they’re thinking about the economics of it. Also, a person answering the questions doesn’t want to come off as purely negative so they’ll find something positive to say.

  • Religion, healthcare and criminal justice are issues for older and more conservative people. Again, who is taking these surveys? I put the phone down when a surveyor rings.

  • michael reynolds Link

    I kept getting a call from a Chicago number. No message. I Googled it and found out it was someone doing a survey for the CDC. I like the CDC, so next time they called, I answered.

    A few minutes into the call they tell me it’s going to take 30 minutes. I pointed out to them that no one who is not a shut-in, a prisoner or 80 is going to spend 30 minutes on the phone with them.

    The best part? It’s a survey about the health of teenagers, What parent has 30 minutes to waste on a survey? I fear any conclusion they draw from whatever sample they finally get is going to be drivel.

  • But I do have to say that I’m blue-collar, or at least physical, to the core. Educate me to the high heavens, and I’ll still want to be hands on.

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