Where Did That 90% Figure Come From?

According to a report on the Aspen Institute 's “Ideas Festival,”:

… where Democratic pollster Doug Schoen has just presented a poll he has done for the occasion. He hasn't said anything about sample size, screening methods, or party weights, but his conclusions were interesting.

Schoen identifies the "affordability crisis" as the sleeper issue in the election. The high cost of housing, gas, child care, and college, and the insecurity of health care and pensions, have left more and more people uncertain about the future of the American dream. Where 25 years ago 90 percent of the public thought that working hard and playing by the rules would lead to a middle-class life, only 49 percent think so today.

25 years ago was 1981, right after a decade of stagflation. It was a decade when you could expect any savings you tried putting aside to be eroded by either inflation or a declining stock market. It was the era when people started realizing that unions couldn't protect them from reality (and this was when unions were far more important than they are today). It was an era when the headlines were full of crime, corruption, and incompetence among the less corrupt. (Anybody remember this movie? It didn't start last year.)

Maybe Doug Schoen has been making that 25 year claim for the past 25 years.