Even when the results coincide with my views, I have a jaundiced view of polling data. In large part, this is because the answers often depend on how a question is framed.
That being said, I periodically link to polling data about economic policy if I think we can glean some insight from the data.
I assume, for instance, that trends can be accurately detected if the same question is asked year after year, regardless of whether the question is fair or slanted.
This is why I posted this poll showing that Americans are increasingly hostile to the federal government.
Similarly, I showed this data on how a growing number of Americans see the federal government as a threat to freedom and liberty.
I also like multi-country polls. Whether the questions are straightforward or tilted, you can at least learn something about differences in national attitudes.
One of my favorite polls, for instance, compared the degree to which Americans and Europeans think it’s okay to mooch off government.
I’m not sure, though, how to react to this latest survey data. Published in the New York Times, it shows widespread global support for more regulation. Here are the results (click the image to enlarge).
These results obviously are not good news for supporters of deregulation – especially since the burden of red tape already is so onerous.
The only bit of good news, at least for American chauvinists, is that people in the United States are more likely than others to think there is “too much” regulation.
But if you look at the data from a different perspective, people in Singapore and Sweden are least likely to say there’s “not enough” regulation.
The most puzzling bit of data is that people in Hong Kong appear to be the most sympathetic to regulation. Considering that Hong Kong is the most economically free jurisdiction in the world, this doesn’t make much sense.
