I have no idea whether any of these statistics are meaningful, but Money Magazine polled an online panel of 700 subscribers to determine the views of the "Investor Class." The results are
surprising.
The demographics:
Our respondents are overwhelmingly male (82 percent) and married (80 percent).
Politically, they're disproportionately Republican (49 percent vs. 31 percent independent and 20 percent Democratic), and almost all describe their views as either moderate (52 percent) or conservative (38 percent).
They make good money (median income $98,000) and have socked away substantial portfolios (median size $387,000).
Here is the most surprising result:
While the vast majority of investors (73 percent) reported that they personally gained from the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts, a whopping 84 percent would rather have had the money used for something else.
At least half would have preferred additional spending on Social Security, Medicare, job creation, health insurance or education.
"I think the tax cut was shortsighted," says Christopher Tankersly, 37, a drug researcher at Amgen in Thousand Oaks, Calif. and registered Democrat. "It was a good political move, and it sounded good on paper. But in the end I think all it did was stress the finances of the government."
Adds George Davis, 35, a Republican in The Woodlands, Texas who works as an emergency-room physician: "I think the tax cuts were too big, and I am worried about the deficit. You have to pay it back at some point."
As for their own tax burdens, more than half (53 percent) said their federal income tax burden was about right.
But the vast majority (81 percent) noted that their state and local taxes have gone up in the past 12 months.
"At least in my case, the increase in our local property taxes and our state taxes has offset any decrease in our federal taxes," says George Reilly, 64, a retired educator and political independent in Mystic, Conn.
Tax cuts didn't even make the top 10 when our panel was asked how important 18 issues were to them personally.
Instead, rising health-care costs topped the list (96 percent called that very or somewhat important to them), followed by putting Social Security on a sound footing (94 percent), enforcing securities laws to protect investors (93 percent), fixing Medicare (91 percent) and strengthening education (88 percent).
By contrast, making the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts permanent was very or somewhat important to only 69 percent; fewer gave high priority to cutting the capital-gains tax (64 percent), eliminating the dividend tax (63 percent) or getting rid of estate taxes (61 percent).
"Personally, I'm happy to get a tax cut," says Republican Robert Parker, 49, an Atwater, Calif. computer consultant and retired Air Force officer. "But when I look at how much the war on terrorism is costing and the other large items out there, like changes to Medicare, I am watching it. Worried is too strong a word, but I am concerned."
Here are the horse race figures:
Across the country, nearly half of voters favor Bush.
Our investors, despite their Republican leanings, are only a bit more positive. Asked how they would vote if the 2004 election were held today, exactly half chose Bush.
Among the crowded field of Democratic hopefuls, not one could yet count on double-digit support from investors: Howard Dean garnered the top spot (9 percent), followed by Wesley Clark (7 percent), John Kerry (4 percent), Joe Lieberman (3 percent) and Dick Gephardt (2 percent).