84 percent of Americans want the government to focus on improving overall economic conditions and the job situation in the United States instead of trying to redistribute wealth and half of Americans think the government does too much, not too little.
The answers from national adults, broken down between Republicans, Democrats and Independents showed that an overwhelming majority, 84 percent, believe the government should be focused on improving overall economic conditions and the job situation rather than trying to redistribute wealth.
90 percent of Republicans, 85 percent of the Independents and 77 percent of the Democrats all believe the government should focus on overall economy versus redistributing wealth.
When broken down by income levels the same sentiment is felt throughout them all, with 78 percent of those making less than $30,000 believing that the government should also focus on fixing the overall economic conditions and the jobs instead of trying to redistribute the wealth, followed by by 83 percent of those making $30,000 to $75,000 believing the same thing and 88 percent of those making $75,000 or more agree.
That answer differs when the "abstract" question of "should the wealthy pay more taxes" is asked showing that when given a choice of remedies, Americans favor that the government focus on fixing the problems and not taking from one group to give to another.
Half of Americans also feel the government does too much, not too little.
50 percent of Americans believe the government does too many things that should be left to individuals or businesses while 43 percent believe the government should do more.
The question was also broken down by political party lines showing that 72 percent of Republicans believe the government does too much while 24 percent think the government does not do enough, 47 percent of Independents believe the government oversteps while 44 percent believe they should do more and the Democrats are the one group that feel, by 58 percent to 36 percent, that the government does not do enough.
Upper and middle-income groups agree that the government does too much instead of too little with lower income respondents believing the government should do more.
In sum, free-market advocates can take considerable solace in Americans' overwhelming belief that the government should not focus on redistributing income and wealth, but on improving the overall economy. And, to a lesser degree, Americans also believe government continues to do too much -- not too little -- to solve the nation's problems. On the other hand, the economic turbulence of 2008 could end up getting government into significant new income and wealth redistribution programs unless the Treasury and the Federal Reserve act soon to stabilize and reduce today's unmanageable food and energy price increases.
The fact that the abstract question of whether the wealthy should be taxed more than they already are showed such a differing answer than when respondents were given a choice of remedies would imply that it is almost a knee-jerk type of response to automatically want to take from the wealthy to give to the poor, yet such an overwhelmingly majority choosing a different option when it is presented to them also goes to highlight how polling results can be skewered based on the form of the question asked.
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