The latest IPSOS work has over 40% of us not happy about money and a decent chunk of us "struggling". What is "struggling"? It's open to a lot of interpretation, isn't it?
Mood doesn’t necessarily deal in fact, and in that is part of the issue.
The facts are, on average, our wages are outpacing inflation. What that means is we are, on average, better off, but the surveys don't show this.
We are in a funk and have been since Covid.
The other part of the problem is the "average" bit. None of us are average, either in our expenditure or income. So, unless you see it, and feel it, and live it, average means nothing.
The age-old question as to whether the price of a basket of groceries is too expensive has been, and forever will be, answered the same – yes it is.
That’s not about maths, or income, or affordability. That’s about mindset.
If you have made up your mind food is too expensive, or you don’t trust the media, or Luxon doesn’t connect with regular people, then evidence comes secondary to mood and vibe and feels.
Is traffic too bad? Is the country on the right track? Do you deserve more income? Does the council waste your rates money? I can line up any number of questions and if I word them the right way I can virtually guarantee you an outcome.
Having then produced the results, I need a compliant media to regurgitate them for an easy headline.
It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. You feel life is too expensive, you feel you are struggling, you read that other people feel like you and so you say to yourself "see, I told you it's true. It's news, it must be true", and around and around we go.
Which is not to say these things don’t have some element of truth about them.
But it's like punching yourself in the head. If you keep doing it what are the chances you'll have a headache at the end of it all?
Mike Hosking is a New Zealand television and radio broadcaster. He currently hosts The Mike Hosking Breakfast show on NewstalkZB on weekday mornings - where this article was sourced.
The facts are, on average, our wages are outpacing inflation. What that means is we are, on average, better off, but the surveys don't show this.
We are in a funk and have been since Covid.
The other part of the problem is the "average" bit. None of us are average, either in our expenditure or income. So, unless you see it, and feel it, and live it, average means nothing.
The age-old question as to whether the price of a basket of groceries is too expensive has been, and forever will be, answered the same – yes it is.
That’s not about maths, or income, or affordability. That’s about mindset.
If you have made up your mind food is too expensive, or you don’t trust the media, or Luxon doesn’t connect with regular people, then evidence comes secondary to mood and vibe and feels.
Is traffic too bad? Is the country on the right track? Do you deserve more income? Does the council waste your rates money? I can line up any number of questions and if I word them the right way I can virtually guarantee you an outcome.
Having then produced the results, I need a compliant media to regurgitate them for an easy headline.
It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. You feel life is too expensive, you feel you are struggling, you read that other people feel like you and so you say to yourself "see, I told you it's true. It's news, it must be true", and around and around we go.
Which is not to say these things don’t have some element of truth about them.
But it's like punching yourself in the head. If you keep doing it what are the chances you'll have a headache at the end of it all?
Mike Hosking is a New Zealand television and radio broadcaster. He currently hosts The Mike Hosking Breakfast show on NewstalkZB on weekday mornings - where this article was sourced.
3 comments:
Unfortunately, most polls are rubbish because they are poorly designed with leading questions.
There is actually a science and to conducting polls but what seems to be the worst factor is the "sampling".
This website has polls but honestly, they are worthless because of the bias in sample and method of data collection.
The most recent and famous example of failing to predict the outcome of an event was in 2016 where many media outlets around the world did not even think a poll was necessary to predict the presidential election.
If only Mike's much-needed message about how people are wrong to reach the conclusions they do about their personal experience could reach a wider audience, we'd solve all sorts of problems at a stroke.
Anon above is right, most polls are not worth the paper they are written on.
A self-selected sample is no sample; it does not represent the population from which it is drawn, which requires random sampling techniques (including stratified sampling to make sure all subpopulations are captured).
But people can refuse to participate (and in political polling especially, they often do if their response is likely to be regarded as an unfashionable one), and they can lie. They can also use polls to send messages to the authorities; the finger-wagging function of polls.
Mike has it very right about the self-fulfilling prophecy nature of much polling owing to the design of the question items.
Still, it provides some people with a good income, and others with discussion points around the coffee table.
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