acton@ubc-cs.UUCP (Donald Acton) (11/20/84)
Last night while listening to a radio station the results of poll on the
following question were given:
Is government run for the benefit of all?
The poll was taken in the US and 40% of the people replied yes, 49% no, and
the rest were undecided or would not answer. The poll claimed to be accurate
to within 2% (sample size 1798) 95% (I think) of the time. My personal opinion
on this is no, government is not run for the benefit of all. My reasoning is
that some of the things that are of benefit to me are definitely not of benefit
to others therefore the government can't be run for the benefit of all. My
question is "If government is not run for the benefit of all then who is
it run for?". (Incidently the yes vote on the poll question was the highest it
has been for the past 12 years.)
Donald Actoncarlo@oscvax.UUCP (11/23/84)
In article <863@ubc-cs.UUCP> acton@ubc-cs.UUCP (Donald Acton) writes: >[If] some of the things that are of benefit to me are definitely not of benefit >to others therefore the government can't be run for the benefit of all. Of course, it isn't run for the benefit of all. All you need is ONE dissenting voice and the statement is false (as you state). However, I don't really think that all of the people who voted for the truth of the statement would answer the following similar question the same way: "Do you believe that government is run for the benefit of every single individual?" Any person with a bit of brains in their heads would answer "NO". I think that the poll question, in order to be fair, should read something like "Do you believe that government is run for the benefit of the majority of people." This would eliminate confusion over the definition of "all". However, it may not be what is wanted in the poll. >My question is "If government is not run for the benefit of all then who is >it run for?". (Incidently the yes vote on the poll question was the highest it >has been for the past 12 years.) > > Donald Acton Why, the pollsters, of course :-). -- Carlo Sgro Ontario Science Centre, Toronto ...!{ihnp4,allegra,linus,decvax,watmath}!utzoo!oscvax!carlo "Don't touch that dial!"
larryk@tektronix.UUCP (Larry Kohn) (11/26/84)
In article <863@ubc-cs.UUCP> acton@ubc-cs.UUCP (Donald Acton) writes: > >My question is "If government is not run for the benefit of all then who is >it run for?". > Why, those on top of the "Second Wave," of course.