Union Members Strongly Support Individual Retirement Accounts
Majority Favors Private Investment Choice Despite Union Leaders' Campaign
Against It
Union members strongly support individual retirement accounts Majority favors
private investment choice despite union leaders' campaign against it
Tuesday, September 14, 1999
A new nationwide poll conducted for the Cato Institute by Zogby International
shows that a majority-53.8 percent-of union members prefer that people be given
a choice of investing their Social Security taxes in privately owned retirement
accounts. Union members favored the private investment alternative at virtually
the same rate as the population as a whole. Only 30.8 percent of union workers
opposed privatization. The survey of 1,205 voters nationwide was conducted from
July 29 to August 2, 1999, and the poll has a margin of error of plus or minus
3 percent.
Overall, the Zogby poll found that, by a margin of 54.9 to 31.4 percent, Americans
prefer changing the Social Security system to allow people to choose to put
their payroll taxes in individual accounts similar to IRAs or 401(k) plans.
Large pluralities of Republicans, Democrats and Independents favor allowing
people to invest Social Security taxes in individual accounts. All three groups
are more likely to vote for a candidate for Congress or president who supports
privatization in the 2000 elections.
Majority support for individual accounts extended across all age groups except
those over 65. Respondents aged 18-29 favored private investment accounts by
a decisive margin of 78.3 to 12.6 percent. The survey also found that all age
groups, other than those 65 and older, consider the current Social Security
system more risky than private investments because they believe the government
will not be able to pay all the benefits it has promised.
Among racial groups, minorities turned out to favor private investment even
more than whites: 57.8 percent of blacks want to be able to invest at least
part of their money; Hispanics, 60.6 percent; and whites, 54.0 percent.
A significant variation turned up among women: 60.1 percent of women who work
outside the home prefer giving people the choice of investing their Social Security
taxes in individual accounts, compared with just 36.2 percent of women who stay
at home. Born-again Christians supported privatization by 52.1 percent to 34.0
percent.
The Zogby-Cato Social Security
Privatization Poll Results.
2001 Index | 2000
Index | 1999 Index | 1998
Index
|
