The malaise continues. Just one-third told Gallup pollsters the new year will be one of prosperity.
The 65% of Americans who predict 2013 will be a year of economic difficulty is one of the more negative responses to this question since Gallup first asked it in 1965. There has been, however, a great deal of fluctuation over that time period, from a high of 65% who said 1965 would be a year of prosperity, to a low of 7% who predicted 1974 would be a year of prosperity. A majority of Americans were positive about the economy in 1998 and 1999, while swinging more to the “economic difficulty” side of the ledger when asked about 2005.
You get what you vote for. And at the national level, the country voted for four more years of astronomical spending and borrowing, a growing welfare state, and an anti-success, anti-business belief system that permeates policy. That’s the recipe for economic difficulty.
