With the public mood darkening since the Iraq war, most Americans have grown more pessimistic about their country's future, seeing it heading on the wrong direction, reported The New York Times on Friday, April 4. A New York Times/CBS News poll found that 81 percent of Americans believe "things have pretty seriously gotten off on the wrong track," up from 69 percent a year ago and 35 percent in early 2002. Seventy-eight percent said the United States was worse off than five years ago. Only 4 percent said it was better off.
"Americans are more dissatisfied with the country’s direction than at any time since the New York Times/CBS News poll began asking about the subject in the early 1990s," said the Times.
The poll, conducted from March 28 to April 2, found that most Americans were dissatisfied with Republican President George W. Bush. Only 28 percent of respondents said they approved Bush's job.
Bush, who leaves the oval office in January 2009, has a domestic approval ratings of 24 percent, the lowest of any US president in history.
Internationally, he tops the list of the most unpopular politicians, according to the poll conducted in the US and the EU by the International Institute Harris.
The poll also showed that public support to the Iraq war and so-called "war-on-terror" has faded away.
Only 17 percent of respondents said terrorism topped their list of concerns against 30 percent a year ago while 37 percent named the economy or the job market against 50 percent last year.
Downbeat
The survey found that there is nearly a national consensus the country is facing significant problems.
Two-thirds of the 1,368 respondents said the US economy is in recession today.
Only 21 percent said the economy was in good condition, the lowest since late 1992.
"The dissatisfaction is especially striking because public opinion usually hits its low point only in the months and years after an economic downturn, not at the beginning of one," said the Times.
"Today, however, Americans report being deeply worried about the country even though many say their own personal finances are still in fairly good shape."
The United States is struggling with a mortgage crisis.
When questioned about the mortgage crisis, most Americans blamed government officials for the economic slowdown.
Forty percent of respondents said regulators were mostly to blame, while 28 percent named lenders and 14 percent named borrowers.
The respondents, however, remain relatively sanguine about the current state of their own finances with more than 70 percent said their financial situation was fairly good or very good.
The poll found that Americans were downbeat about the future with fewer than half of parents (46%) said they expected their children to enjoy a better standard of living than they themselves do, down from 56 percent in 2005.
Respondents were also more pessimistic when asked in general terms about the next generation.
Only one-third of respondents said the next generation would live better than people do today, in contract to the usual trend that people become more upbeat about their personal situation than about the state of society
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