Ahead of Memorial Day, Americans’ confidence in the military unwavering

NewsWorks Tonight host Dave Heller sits down for his weekly conversation with Gallup’s Frank Newport to talk about trends in U.S. opinion.

This coming Monday is Memorial Day, the day when the nation honors those who died in military service to the country.

Americans have higher confidence in the military than in any other institution. When pressed, Americans say that the Air Force is the most important to the nation’s defense. Americans would be most likely to recommend that a young person join either the Air Force or the Navy, new research shows, with fewer recommending joining the Army or Marines.

Trump’s budget proposal — released on Tuesday — doesn’t touch Social Security, even though it is clear the Social Secutity system will run out of money within the next several decades.

Surprisingly, even with the predictions that the Social Security system is going down the tubes, new research shows that Americans have become somewhat more likely rather than less likely to say they will use it as a major source of income when they retire. This includes young millennials.

Speaking of savings, Americans’ ownership of stock has been declining over the past decade and a half. It dropped after the recession and hasn’t recovered since.

Stock ownership rates are highly related to income, ranging from 21 percent among those with an annual household income of less than $30,000 to 89 percent among those with an income of $100,000 or more. On average, 62 percent of U.S. adults aged 30 to 64 own stocks, compared with 31 percent of those aged 18 to 29, and 54 percent of those aged 65 and older.