The majority of Americans have positive attitudes toward business and are actually wary of any government regulation of business, according to the findings from the Public Affairs Council’s (PAC) 2013 Pulse survey. The PAC’s findings examined how Americans lack faith in the federal government to solve the nation’s pressing issues, and they’re looking to business for help. The PAC’s Pulse survey was conducted in May 2013 and based on telephone interviews with 1,604 English and Spanish adults living in the United States.
“Americans continue to favor private businesses over the federal government,” said Douglas Pinkham, president of the Public Affairs Council and IPR Board Member, in a news release. “And, unfortunately, people don’t have much faith in government to solve our biggest problems. That may be why Americans are becoming less supportive of regulation—and why the public hasn’t been more upset over the federal budget sequestration.”
The findings from this survey were released by the nonpartisan Public Affairs Council and conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International. They analyzed the relationship between business and society, and how the public views the public and private sectors.
Other findings from the 2013 Pulse survey include:
- Seventy-three percent of respondents say major companies generally do a good job providing useful products and services, and 65 percent say companies are doing a good job serving their customers.
- Fifty-one percent of Millennials give the federal government favorable scores, compared with only 44 percent of Gen X-ers and 35 percent of Baby Boomers.
- Americans are overwhelmingly opposed to using public financing to fund political campaigns, with only 33 percent agreeing that tax dollars should be a source of funding.
- Seven in ten Americans (73 percent) are supportive of the role of political action committees (PACs) in our nation’s campaigns and electoral process, and 34 percent believe that PACs should be a major source of campaign funding.
- Fifty percent of Millennials and 44 percent of Gen X-ers have posted positive comments about a company online, compared with only 29 percent of Baby Boomers.
For the full report, “Public Affairs Pulse: What Americans Think about Business” go to the Public Affairs Pulse website. See more at: http://pac.org/pulse/
Douglas Pinkham is an IPR Trustee and President of the Public Affairs Council, the leading nonpartisan, nonpolitical association for public affairs professionals worldwide.
Sarah Jackson is Institute for Public Relations Consultant.
The most interesting point is the difference in generational viewpoints. Unfortunately, neither this article nor the attached one says how many people from each generation were interviewed, which would appear to perhaps significantly impact upon aggregated responses.
To niggle silly semantics, why are we asking the English and Spanish what they think of American business and government? Perhaps we should be asking American English and Spanish speakers?