Poll: Americans Support Tackling Poverty

With hard times facing so many, what do Americans think about taking action to fight poverty?

In a Gerstein/Agne poll for Half in Ten conducted shortly after the election, more than three quarters of respondents said that cutting poverty in half in the next ten years should be a national goal. A majority reaffirmed that this should be true even if it means more government spending, or more regulation of business. And there was agreement across ideology, age, and race that “the negative consequences of poverty affect all of us” as opposed to “mostly those living in poor neighborhoods,” with 77% of respondents preferring the first option. Further evidence that the problem of poverty strikes close to home for many: 52% said that either they themselves or a member of their immediate family was poor, up from 36% who answered the question that way in a 2001 Pew survey.

Click here to download a slideshow with additional survey results.

Click here to download Gerstein/Agne memo on the survey.