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my wife picked up the phone for this poll. it's the first time we've ever been called to participate in the poll. judging by the way questions were asked (order, types of questions, etc), and the answers my wife gave, i pretty much now have personally experienced the evidence that polls are b.s.
that being said...to the person who said NJ has 500,000 public workers...in a population of close to 9 million people, that's around 7%....who are the other 40% that disapprove? lol
my wife picked up the phone for this poll. it's the first time we've ever been called to participate in the poll. judging by the way questions were asked (order, types of questions, etc), and the answers my wife gave, i pretty much now have personally experienced the evidence that polls are b.s.
that being said...to the person who said NJ has 500,000 public workers...in a population of close to 9 million people, that's around 7%....who are the other 40% that disapprove? lol
I think I may have gotten that call as well. It asked you to rate from 1 (the worst) to 5 (the best) and then it started rattling off names starting with Christie, then Obama, then Sweeney, then the parties, then I hung up.
I don't usually mind taking political polls, but the last few that called me said they would take over 15 minutes, no way I'm doing those.
Good point, they are all pieces of one puzzle. I'm not anti-transit or trains, but they are not some magic cure all for the state and we are working with limited funds. Plain and simple, road projects right now make the biggest impact to the most amount of people and are far easier to start and complete, putting more people to work.
but this is often short-sighted thinking. sure, it's easier to start and complete, but the long-term effects do not improve much. the short term improvements make people happy, thus, achieving what the typical politician is trying to do...win re-election. but investment in mass transit is something sorely needed in many parts of the state. it's more long term planning, so it gets ignored, because that doesn't get people elected.
they are all pieces to one large puzzle. we don't maintain our roads well enough either. but we really can't afford to cut funding to either form of transportation.
but this is often short-sighted thinking. sure, it's easier to start and complete, but the long-term effects do not improve much. the short term improvements make people happy, thus, achieving what the typical politician is trying to do...win re-election. but investment in mass transit is something sorely needed in many parts of the state. it's more long term planning, so it gets ignored, because that doesn't get people elected.
they are all pieces to one large puzzle. we don't maintain our roads well enough either. but we really can't afford to cut funding to either form of transportation.
How true. As with most things having a unified long term plan and strategy is what's needed, but never what's done. How about we develop 5, 10, 20 and 30 year plans for transit development taking into account future growth projections and needs and actually plan to fund it adequately. Americans as a whole are pretty averse to anything that doesn't provide instant gratification.
Here's the thing. Whether you agree with Christie or not, it's going to come down to people asking whether their life is better today than it was before Christie took office. They are going to look at their taxes. They are going to look at other expenses. They are going to see that they are now paying more for transit, more for school activities, more for town services...everything that Christie has cut. If the stories keep coming out that shows the wealthy have seen their wealth increase under Christie during this same time then people are going to be upset.
i think you summed it up pretty well. it really doesn't matter what your politics are in the matter, if my property taxes are still rising, and i'm also looking at paying more for school activities and local services are suffering...i'm going to be dissatisfied (not saying any of this is true for me, right now). if, on top of that, i read that a project in AC is getting assistance from the state to help finish, Xanadu is getting assistence, etc. etc...i'm going to be dissatisfied. does it matter that some of it is future tax revenue that just won't get collected? no...not to most voters.
we can argue all day about the good and the bad he has done. in the end, what matters is how real voters will perceive him, and the climate of NJ. the fact of the matter is, Christie got a lot of votes last time around that were "not corzine votes". can he get those again in re-election? i don't see it happening personally.
I think I may have gotten that call as well. It asked you to rate from 1 (the worst) to 5 (the best) and then it started rattling off names starting with Christie, then Obama, then Sweeney, then the parties, then I hung up.
I don't usually mind taking political polls, but the last few that called me said they would take over 15 minutes, no way I'm doing those.
that's it. there were very few questions about obama, and i got the sense that it was to determine the pollee's political leanings. they asked what party you're registered as. then they asked who you align yourself more with. all sorts of questions. it was friday night (the 17th), at 7pm. it took around 10 minutes. but i was honestly so excited when i saw quinnipiac on the caller ID, i knew it would be a poll.
i often criticize polls and the ensuing "results" of the polls because i think the process is fundamentally flawed. and this phone call mostly proved many of my assumptions to be correct.
1. pollees don't answer all questions accurately - i.e., my wife responded to a religious question that she is "catholic". i'm baptized, not a good catholic, but i may call myself catholic. she's born to a jewish mother and catholic father, neither of which ever go to church/services...she's nothing. but i guess it's not totally incorrect, since I am catholic. but i told her she answered questions "wrong".
2. pollees answer questions quickly, because of how they are asked, with little thought. this happened a few times, and i looked at her like.."did you really mean that answer?"
3. pollees answer questions based on the order they are asked. confirmation bias is basically created by the order of questions.
i know they ask similar questions to see answers that contradict each other, to help smooth out the issues with polls...but i witnessed first hand how poorly these polls are conducted, and my opinion of them has not changed.
now the results aren't necessarily "wrong"...but when people start parsing and quoting certain aspects of the polls...that's where i take issue.
How true. As with most things having a unified long term plan and strategy is what's needed, but never what's done. How about we develop 5, 10, 20 and 30 year plans for transit development taking into account future growth projections and needs and actually plan to fund it adequately. Americans as a whole are pretty averse to anything that doesn't provide instant gratification.
you probably read the "economist" article i posted on another thread on this exact topic (america's transportation spending, or lackthereof). it's short-sited in the past 50-60 years. and no one seems to care. meanwhile, a recent NPR story talks about how China is building a highway in Kenya to increase economic stability in Kenya, creating more trade for China. now...not saying the U.S. should be building roads and infrastructure in Mexico so that Mexicans buy more stuff off of us....but it'd be nice if the U.S. could maintain our infrastructure, and maybe start considering moving it forward into the 21st century sometime, well, this century.
you probably read the "economist" article i posted on another thread on this exact topic (america's transportation spending, or lackthereof). it's short-sited in the past 50-60 years. and no one seems to care. meanwhile, a recent NPR story talks about how China is building a highway in Kenya to increase economic stability in Kenya, creating more trade for China. now...not saying the U.S. should be building roads and infrastructure in Mexico so that Mexicans buy more stuff off of us....but it'd be nice if the U.S. could maintain our infrastructure, and maybe start considering moving it forward into the 21st century sometime, well, this century.
I didn't read the article, but I will look it up. I just feel this way on a lot of issues from energy policy to transportation to overall development. I'm not saying we need to have a planned economy, but it would be nice to have a plan for something.
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