Thursday, December 10, 2009

Lawyers Viewed Better than Congress, Wall Street Execs

It's a pretty low bar, but according to the latest survey from Bloomberg news (.pdf), lawyers aren't the least liked people in America:
For each of the following major U.S. institutions, please tell me if your impression is very favorable, mostly favorable, mostly unfavorable, or very unfavorable. If you don’t know enough to give your feelings, just say so. (Rotate list.)

A. Small business: 92 percent favorable, 3 percent unfavorable
B. Lawyers: 39 percent favorable, 49 percent unfavorable
C. Corporate executives: 29 percent favorable, 57 percent unfavorable
D. Doctors: 85 percent favorable, 10 percent unfavorable
E. Wall Street executives: 18 percent favorable, 66 percent unfavorable
F. Congress: 29 percent favorable, 61 percent favorable
G. The White House: 51 percent favorable, 39 percent unfavorable
H. The military: 87 percent favorable, 8 percent unfavorable
I. Insurance companies: 36 percent favorable, 55 percent unfavorable
For reference, the only other institution or public figure to have the exact same favorable/unfavorable spread as lawyers: Sarah Palin. So perhaps the headline of this post should have been Americans like lawyers about as much as they like Sarah Palin...

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7 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Very helpful poll. It would be even more helpful if they would have provided similar ratings for orphans, average joes, grandmothers, and terrorists.

I love that 3% think of small businesses unfavorably.

12/10/2009 4:44 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Small businesses are ruining America!

12/10/2009 6:45 PM  
Blogger McTwo said...

F. Congress: 29 percent favorable, 61 percent favorable

If I am not mistaken, that makes for 90% favorable.

12/10/2009 8:52 PM  
Blogger Jonathan Singer said...

Sean, some respondents express no opinion.

12/10/2009 9:53 PM  
Blogger Matt Berg said...

I think Sean's trying to tell you that you have a typo, albeit in a rather vague and underhanded way.

12/10/2009 9:56 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

D adds up to 105%

12/11/2009 12:34 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Anonymous can't add...

12/14/2009 8:48 PM  

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