John Hinderaker at Power Line has a chart reporting Gallup poll findings in response to a question of do you expect to be better off financially a year from now, basically a measure of optimism. Gallup cut the sample into various categories and computed the average optimism level for each.
While the booming economy means we’d expect quite a lot of financial optimism, there are a few surprises. The least optimistic group was Democrats, only 60% expect to be better off financially a year from now, 83% of Republicans were optimistic. Democrats have to be disheartened so many of their voters are optimistic.
The young are more optimistic than the old, non-whites more optimistic than whites, and non-college folk more optimistic than college grads. I experience those findings as somewhat counterintuitive.
Generally high levels of optimism have obvious political implications come November. One would expect incumbents to benefit from optimism.
