… While our desire for lots of government programs but low taxes is documented, current polling practices are at least slightly to blame for the fact that politicians feel the need to fulfill all of the public’s “wishes.” What politicians see is that the public supports all of these programs. But if we ask our questions differently, we might get different answers—answers that suggest the public is a lot more intelligent and willing to make trade-offs than politicians seem to think is the case.
How do we know this? [cont.]
Alexandra Filindra (U. of Illinois-Chicago) & Shanna Pearson-Merkowitz (U. of R.I.), Pacific Standard