62% Think American Society is Fair and Decent

http://rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/mood_of_america/america_s_best_days

The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey finds that 62% of likely voters believe American society is fair and decent. Twenty-eight percent (28%) of voters disagree and find it unfair and discriminatory.

As in last month’s survey, there were significant differences in opinion between different partisan and demographic groups. While 84% of Republicans said they felt society is fair and decent, only 49% of Democrats agreed. On the other side, only 9% of Republicans see society as unfair and discriminatory and 41% of democrats hold that view.

Sixty-seven percent (67%) of white voters think society is fair and decent, but 64% of black voters take the opposite view.

There is also a significant ideological divide on this question. The overwhelming majority of conservatives (70%) view society as fair and decent while only 20% take the opposite view. Liberals are more evenly split on the matter—53% of them believe think society is fair and decent while 37% say it is unfair and discriminatory.

This is exactly why Edwards and Kucinich are doing poorly

So they wouldn't know any better.

Of course, that's not meant to imply that I buy even slightly into Rassmussen's stupid poll.

...have been a lot less fair and decent than here.

I'll take OUR version of fair and decent anyday.

which is what one would hope that Americans would like to compare themselves with.

Indeed, the Aussies have a cultural saying about that. It's called "a fair go."

Don't see much of that ethos in the states these days....

I'm sure Oz and Western Europe are really nice, though (not being snarky).

spending their days being a Wal-Martian.

themselves to blame - ESPECIALLY the black and brown ones. I have to listen to the parroted prattle of their snot-nosed little brats in college every day. They believe that everybody has an equal chance to make it and if you don't, it's your own fault, and if it wasn't for all those damn lazy welfare cheats they could like totally go to Cancun for spring break this year.

If any of them answered that they didn't think the system was fair, it would be because they think the poor have it too easy.

--p!

Just look at any Obama thread!

Or Hillary thread!

Hell, just about ANY thread!

In 1985 one out of every 320 Americans were in jail.
In 1995 one out of every 167 Americans were in jail.
Between1980 and 1994, the number of people in federal and state prisons increased 221%.
Today, 2 million Americans are in prison.
1.2 million are African-American men.
While there is debate over their underlying causes, these staggering statistics are generally thought to result from rigid drug laws, mandatory minimum sentences and increasingly tough
legislation— such as California’s "three strikes" law. One fact remains undisputed: prisons have become big business.
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Big name corporations compete with each other to underwrite prison construction with private, tax-exempt bonds and without voter approval. More and more states across the country are implementing mandatory labor for inmates, necessitating partnerships with outside industry.
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Prison Partners
In the tiny town of Lockhart, Texas a private prison run by Wakenhut (a for-profit private corporation) does business with a company called LTI. In this partnership the prisoners assemble circuit boards bound for hi-tech corporations. For LTI, moving manufacturing to the Lockhart prison was a no-brainer. There they found a captive workforce that did not require benefits or vacation pay, major tax incentives and a brand new assembly plant rented for only a symbolic fee. As a result, LTI’s plant in Austin, Texas was shut down and 150 people lost their jobs. In Michigan, through a similar arrangement, the majority of Brill Manufacturing Company’s workforce lost their jobs to state prison inmates.http://www.itvs.org/shift/prison.html

• In 2000, 1.5 million U.S. children had an incarcerated parent. Between 1990-2001, the number of women in prison increased by 106%.
• In 1995, 12% of children in foster care had not received routine health care. 90% had not received services to address developmental delays.
• Between 1992-2002, the number of infants and toddlers entering foster care increased by 110%.
• In 1993, more than 60% of the homeless population in NYC municipal shelters were former foster youth.
• According to a 1999 report, less than 50% of foster youth had graduated from high school, compared to 85% of the general population.
• In 2000, of 732 mid-western foster care youths, nearly 52% had lived in three or more foster homes and had moved schools.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There are more than half a million children and youth in the U.S. foster care system, a 90% increase since 1987.Three of 10 of the nation’s homeless are former foster children.
A recent study has found that 12-18 months after leaving foster care:
27% of the males and 10% of the females had been incarcerated
33% were receiving public assistance
37% had not finished high school
50% were unemployed
Children in foster care are three to six times more likely than children not in care to have emotional, behavioral and developmental problems
A study by the National Center for Mental Health and Juvenille Justice found 70% of these youth meet the criteria for at least one mental health disorder. What's worse is that 36% of the parents of these youth intentionally involved the juvenille justice system to access mental health services...some 12,700 children were places in either child welfare, or the juvenilled justice systems to access mental health systems (U.S. GAO 2003) Of course, the U.S. DOJ in recent investigations into the conditions in these juvenille detention and correctional facilities, found inadequate access to treatment, inappropriate use of medications, and neglect of suicide attempts nationwide (U.S.DOJ 2005).
---80 percent of prison inmates have been through the foster care system.
* 872,000 children and youth were confirmed victims of abuse or neglect in the United States in 2004.
Children are 11 times more likely to be abused in State care than they are in their own homes.
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Nationwide, researchers, practitioners, and policymakers are increasingly focusing on a growing tragedy large numbers of youth with mental health problems becoming involved in the juvenile justice system. A recent study by the National Center for Mental Health and Juvenile Justicefound approximately 70% of the youth in residential juvenile justice settings meet criteria for at least one mental health disorder(Shufelt &Cocozza, 2006).
--According to the National Council on Crime and Delinquency, since 1990 the incarceration of youth in
adult jails has increased 208%. On any given day, more than 7,000 young people are held in adult jails.
-- Increasing numbers of young people have been placed in adult jails where they are at risk of assault, abuse, and death. Currently, 40 states permit or require that youth charged as adults be placed pre-trial in an adult jail, and in some states they may be required to serve their entire sentence in an adult jail.
According to the National Council on Crime and Delinquency, since 1990 the incarceration of youth in adult jails has increased 208%.
http://www.correctionsproject.com/corrections/pris_priv.htm
http://www.childwelfare.gov/can/
http://www.nrccwdt.org/rscs/rscs_links_other.html

It seems a certain demographic is at work here. The not-so Fair and Decent crowd, maybe:

"Eighty-two percent (82%) of voters in the same survey feel that people who move to America from other countries should adopt the culture, while only 10% think they should maintain their home culture. "

"In terms of foreign relations, a quarter of Americans (25%) think the United States should do what its allies want, while the plurality (43%) feel our allies should do what the U.S. wants. Another quarter agree with neither choice."


The answers seem to lean a little to the right. :shrug:

otherwise kucinich would be a serious contender

that's my whole point, lol

Sixty-seven percent (67%) of white voters think society is fair and decent, but 64% of black voters take the opposite view.

so if over 90% of african americans support democrats (as they usually do), that doesn't automatically translate to an election time victory

when a critical mass of white folks start to think that society is unfair, or when whites are not a majority anymore, then you will see some real changes, but it is what it is

unless obama can sell his message of change to more whites.

I mean, was there a definition for "fair and decent," or was each respondent left to define it for himself or herself?

Laughably, 9% of self-identified Republican respondents said that American society was unfair and discriminatory. Which means that the popular media spend an awful lot of time preoccupied with made-up bullshit controversies like the alleged war on Christmas. All in an effort to keep 9% of Republicans mollified.

I wish more of the other 42% would vote, though.