AP Poll: Jobs, Social Security are key for next president

Unit 2

The majority of Americans intensely believe that reducing unemployment rates and protecting the future of social security is highly important. Because Americans believe this, these issues are key for our future president. As is usual, though, there are many more economic issues between Republicans and Democrats on which agreement is not met. A random sampling poll of 1,008 people was performed by the AP-NORC was conducted in January, 2016. In the study, the sampling error was an estimated +/- 3.6 percent.

According to the AP-NORC poll, "85 percent of Americans think protecting the future of Social Security is extremely or very important for the next president and 81 percent said the same for reducing unemployment." At this rate, Social Security is only able to pay out full program benefits until 2034. On a better note, unemployment rates stand at 4.9 percent, the lowest it has been in eight years.

Democrats, unlike Republicans, feel that thinning the gap between the rich and poor is highly
important. Democrats wish to decrease the amount of people in poverty and hope to increase wages in order to balance increases in living costs. Republicans, on the other hand, are much more focused on reducing the federal deficit. They also place importance on revamping the welfare system and diminishing government regulation.

From my perspective, social security does not seem as big of a deal to me because retirement is not in my near future. Unemployment, however, is a much bigger deal to me since I will soon be entering the workforce in a couple of years. With these issues at hand, the public opinion does not seem to know which candidate will be able to best transform our economic future.

Source:
http://www.cnbc.com/2016/02/23/the-associated-press-ap-poll-jobs-social-security-are-key-for-next-president.html