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GSS 5-point scale: 1 = government should take action to improve the standard of living of all poor Americans, 5 = people should take care of themselves.
Latest: 18% answered “People help themselves” in GSS, 2024.
Dashed lines mark changes in how interviews were done, which can shift answers: 1. GSS → web (2021).
Shares of people whose answer maps onto these categories (non-answers and answers outside the scale are left out), because surveys differ in whether they offer “don’t know.” Each column is one survey wave, evenly spaced rather than to scale in time; hover for exact shares.
Dashed lines mark changes in how interviews were done, which can shift answers: 1. GSS → web (2021).
Shares of people whose answer maps onto these categories (non-answers and answers outside the scale are left out), because surveys differ in whether they offer “don’t know.” Each point is one survey wave at the middle of its field period. Lines from different surveys are never spliced together.
Groups differ from everyone by 11 points on average across all answers.
| Line | Question | Match | How answers map |
|---|---|---|---|
| GSS | Government responsibility to improve poor Americans' living standards I'd like to talk with you about issues some people tell us are important. Please look at CARD BC. Some people think that the government in Washington should do everything possible to improve the standard of living of all poor Americans; they are at Point 1 on this card. Other people think it is not the government's responsibility, and that each person should take care of himself; they are at Point 5.
A. Where would you place yourself on this scale, or haven't you have up your mind on this? | identical | Government should help → Government action; 2 → Government action; Agree with both → Agree with both; 4 → People help themselves; People should care for themselves → People help themselves |
Dashed lines mark changes in how interviews were done, which can shift answers: 1. GSS → web (2021).
Groups differ from everyone by 7 points on average across all answers.
Dashed lines mark changes in how interviews were done, which can shift answers: 1. GSS → web (2021).
Subgroup charts are picked automatically. Of every breakdown in the data (party, ideology, age, sex, race, education, income, region, religion, and community type), these two put their groups furthest from everyone’s answers: the gap is averaged across all answer categories and waves, with each group weighted by its share of respondents. Party and ideology count as one choice, so the second chart shows a different kind of split. Groups with an effective sample under 50 in a wave are left out of that wave.