You will be shocked at what some Americans actually believe. For example, close to 90 percent of us believe that we are eating a healthy diet, and yet more than third of the population is officially obese. 65 percent of all Americans say that they are dissatisfied with the government, and yet nearly a third of us would be willing to submit to a “TSA body cavity search” in order to get on an airplane. As you will see below, Americans are angrier and more frustrated with government and with their lives than ever before, but we also exhibit almost unbelievable levels of sloth and apathy. Some of the numbers below are quite funny, and others are absolutely stunning. But they all say something about who we have become as a nation. The following are 30 survey results that sound false but that are actually true…
#1 According to a recent Rasmussen Reports survey, 52 percent of Americans “do not think the economy is fair to those willing to work hard”.
#2 70 percent of all Americans do not “feel engaged or inspired at their jobs”.
#3 According to another recent Rasmussen Reports survey, 59 percent of Americans believe that “less government involvement in the economy” would help reduce the size of the income gap in this country. (And those 59 percent are actually correct.)
#4 20 percent of all government workers and 26 percent of all Obama supporters consider the Tea Party to be “the biggest terror threat” that America is facing.
#5 Approximately 30 percent of all American workers have $1,000 or less saved up for retirement.
#6 A worldwide survey conducted by the Worldwide Independent Network and Gallup found that 24 percent of people around the world consider the United States to be the biggest threat to peace. Pakistan was in second place with just 8 percent.
#7 60 percent of Americans report feeling “angry or irritable”. Two years ago that number was at 50 percent.
#8 36 percent of Americans admit that they have yelled at a customer service agent during the past year.
#9 29 percent of Americans believe that “cloud computing” involves an actual cloud.
#10 A survey of employers that currently pay minimum wage to at least some of their employees found that 38 percent of them would start laying off employees if the minimum wage was raised.
#11 One survey found that 56 percent of Americans believe that it is okay for the government to track “the telephone records of millions of Americans” in order to keep us safe.
#12 When George W. Bush was president, 61 percent of Democrats considered NSA surveillance to be “unacceptable”, but now that Obama is in the White House, only 34 percent of them consider it to be “unacceptable”.
#13 67 percent of Americans support the use of unmanned drones in “homeland security missions” inside the United States.
#14 One survey found that 51 percent of all Americans agree with this statement: “it is necessary to give up some civil liberties in order to make the country safe from terrorism.”
#15 Close to one-third of all Americans would be willing to submit to a “TSA body cavity search” in order to fly.
#16 65 percent of Americans are dissatisfied “with the U.S. system of government and its effectiveness”. That is the highest level of dissatisfaction that Gallup has ever recorded.
#17 Only 8 percent of Americans believe that Congress is doing a “good” or “excellent” job.
#18 70 percent of Americans do not have confidence that the federal government will “make progress on the important problems and issues facing the country in 2014”.
#19 According to a survey conducted by the National Geographic Society, only 37 percent of all Americans in the 18 to 24-year-old age range can find the nation of Iraq on a map.
#20 Close to 25 percent of all Americans do not know that the United States declared independence from Great Britain.
#21 Right now, 29 percent of all Americans under the age of 35 are living with their parents.
#22 According to one survey, 24 percent of all U.S. teens that have a sexually-transmitted disease say that they still have unprotected sex.
#23 Approximately one out of every five teenage girls in the United States actually wants to be a teenage mother.
#24 The percentage of Americans that “believe there are signs that aliens have visited Earth” is actually higher than the percentage of Americans that believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
#25 According to one recent survey, only 35 percent of all Americans say that they are better off financially than they were a year ago.
#26 It is hard to believe, but 56 percent of all Americans are considered to have “subprime credit” at this point.
#27 89.7 percent of all Americans believe that they are eating a healthy diet. Meanwhile, approximately 36 percent of all Americans are obese.
#28 44 percent of all Americans do not have a first-aid kit in their homes.
#29 48 percent of all Americans do not have any emergency supplies stored up at all.
#30 53 percent of all Americans do not even have a 3 day supply of nonperishable food and water in their homes. What will they do when a major crisis or emergency strikes? Do they actually believe that the government will swoop in to save them if something happens?
So what do you think about these survey results? Is there anything that you would add to the list? Please feel free to share what you think by posting a comment below…