Paul Krugman: Well, consider the case of the budget deficit — voters are poorly informed — but you may be surprised by just how misinformed. On a 1996 survey that asked voters whether the budget deficit had increased or decreased under President Clinton, [even though] the deficit was down sharply, a plurality of voters — and a majority of Republicans — believed that it had gone up. [In] a similar survey, we asked whether the deficit has gone up or down since January 2010. And the results were even worse than in 1996: Only 12 percent answered correctly that it has gone down a lot. Voters are [not] stupid -- they [just] rely on what they hear from authority figures. [But] much of what they hear is misleading if not outright false., tend[ing] to be politically motivated.
Posted on: Sat, 17 Aug 2013 00:30:21 +0000
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