What Do You Think?

Yesterday afternoon, (Sunday!!) I saw “Survey Center” on my phone’s caller ID.  I considered not picking up, but then I did, and I agreed to answer the survey questions thinking, my side needs to be heard.

But like many others surveys I’ve taken, it pissed me off.  It seemed designed to elicit certain answers.  How would I rate Congress on a scale of 1-100?  I already knew that we like cockroaches better than Congress; I read it somewhere on line.  However, some members of Congress I like very much; others I like as much as cockroaches.  I answered “50.”

There were a lot of questions about the EPA.  The caller said some people were worried that the new bill the EPA wants to see passed would raise gas prices to $9 a gallon though others felt it would help asthma sufferers.  Since I knew nothing about the bill I told her I wasn’t qualified to have an opinion.  She answered with something like, “Everybody is entitled to an opinion.  Poor woman.  That caused me to get argumentative—I said an uninformed opinion is worthless.  Of course it’s not her job to think about such things.

But these surveys ask questions as if we will (and should) have an opinion whether we’re informed or not.  Be very wary of poll results.