Reason-Rupe has a new survey and report out on
millennials—find it here.
Here are a few highlights:
(1) Millennials
prefer smaller government, if larger government requires high
taxes. When tax rates are not explicit, 54 percent of
millennials favor “larger government providing more services” and
43 percent prefer “smaller government providing fewer services.”
But once tax rates are mentioned, support flips. Instead, 57
percent favor “smaller government, providing fewer services, with
low taxes” and 41 percent want “larger government, providing more
services, with high taxes.”
At first, Caucasian millennials are nearly 20 points more likely
than non-white millennials to favor small government. But once
taxes are mentioned the race/ethnicity gap disappears among
Caucasian, Latino, and Asian millennials and 6 in 10 prefer small
government.
(2) Millennials
are cautious of government power. 58 percent of
millennials worry government agencies abuse their power. 63 percent
believe government regulators favor special interests over the
public when they write and enforce regulations. 66 percent say
government is usually inefficient and wasteful, up from 42 percent
in 2009.
(3) Millennials
still want government to care for the disadvantaged. 58
percent of millennials think government should spend more on
financial assistance to the poor, even if higher taxes are
required. Roughly 7 in 10 also favor government guarantees for
housing, food, and health insurance, and 54 percent favor
guarantees for college to the least advantaged.
However, their
support for social spending steadily declines as their incomes
rise.
(4) Millennials
strongly prefer free markets over a government-managed
economy. When asked to choose the better system, 64
percent of millennials choose the free market over an economy
managed by the government (32 percent). A majority (52 percent)
also favors capitalism over socialism (42 percent). Interestingly,
millennials appear to be more favorable to socialism than a
government managed economy even though the former requires more
government intervention. This indicates millennials may not know
what the word “socialism” means.
(5) Millennials
don’t like to be nannied.Across a number of substances and
activities governments have banned or sought to ban, millennials
favor individual freedom. For instance, majorities support
legalizing marijuana (57 percent) and online gambling (58 percent),
buying traditional incandescent light bulbs (64 percent), selling
large sugary drinks in restaurants (72 percent), and eating trans
fats (62 percent).
Moreover, 67 percent think government ought to allow same-sex
couples to get married. In fact, even 54 percent of Republican
millennials support legalizing same-sex marriage.
(6) Millennials
are entrepreneurial and like business. 55 percent of
millennials say they’d like to start their own business one day and
that hard work is the key to success (61 percent). Millennials also
have a positive view of the profit motive (64 percent) and
competition (70 percent).
(7) Millennials
favor meritocracy over egalitarianism. When asked to
choose, 57 percent of millennials would rather live in a society
where wealth is distributed according to individual achievement
rather than a society where the income gap is small (40 percent).
Their preferences for meritocracy or egalitarianism are tied to
their attitudes toward large or small government, redistribution,
capitalism and socialism.
(8) Millennials
are social liberals and fiscal centrists. Millennials
distinguish between liberal positions on economics and
social issues, flouting traditional political allegiances. 62
percent identify as socially liberal while 49 percent say they are
fiscally liberal.
A socially liberal, fiscally conservative political candidate could
succeed with millennials. 53 percent say they would
support a candidate who was both socially liberal and fiscally
conservative. In fact, liberal millennials (60 percent) are
significantly more supportive of such a candidate than
conservatives (43 percent). Social issues, more than economics,
tend to define their political labels and shape their political
judgments.
(9) To
stimulate the economy, millennials want action. In efforts
to stimulate the economy, millennials simultaneously support
policies that expand government and policies that limit it.
Two-thirds favor raising taxes on the wealthy and reducing
government spending by 5 percent. But 6 in 10 also favor increasing
government spending for job training programs and infrastructure
projects, as well as cutting taxes. Millennials think somebody
should do something to help improve the economy, but have less of
an ideological preference as to how.
(10) Millennials
are the most racially diverse generation. Only 56 percent
of millennials are white, compared to 73 percent of baby boomers
(46 to 64 year olds). Millennials are almost twice as likely to be
Hispanic as older Americans (19 percent vs. 10 percent), and more
likely to identify as African American (15 percent vs. 11 percent)
and Asian (6 percent vs. 4 percent).
To learn more about millennials, check
out Reason-Rupe’s new report.
from Hit & Run http://ift.tt/1mNjHc2
via IFTTT