Gallup poll shows country disgusted with growing corruption.
By Deepak Chitnis
WASHINGTON, DC: A new Gallup survey has yielded an interesting result just days before the US celebrates its Independence Day: Americans as a whole feel less free than they have in the past.
The poll, released on Tuesday, says that only 79% of Americans are satisfied with the freedoms afforded to them by the US government, a rather precipitous drop from the 91% that said they were happy back in 2006. To put that in perspective, in a span of just eight years, Americans are 15% less satisfied with their freedom, the founding principle of the nation.
Gallup’s survey looked at countries from all around the world, and revealed that citizens of New Zealand and Australia are the most satisfied with their freedoms – 94% and 93%, respectively. Sweden, the UAE, the Netherlands, Canada, Iceland, and Denmark all ranked significantly higher than the US, as well, with numbers in the low nineties.
Countries that have dropped as much as the US include some of the usual suspects, like Pakistan and Egypt, and also countries like Greece, Italy, Romania, and Spain.
The reason for the drop in feeling less free the report hypothesizes, is that American citizens feel that their government has become too corrupt. In the wake of increasing hostility between Democrats and Republicans – which culminated late last summer, with the partial government shutdown after a budget couldn’t be agreed upon – it’s hard to blame them.
A separate poll, also by Gallup and released on Tuesday, said that 79% of US citizens believe their government is rife with corruption, a rise from 59% last year.
On top of that, President Barack Obama’s sliding approval ratings could also be a contributing factor; Obama has struggled to salvage his hopeful image with the American public in light of a disastrous Obamacare rollout, rising tensions in the Middle East, a floundering economic recovery, and non-movement with immigration reform.
The results come from data collected in 2013, with a margin of error of 1.7-5.8%.