Gallup: Americans support small business — in theory

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

President Donald Trump this week continued his “war on the media” with his condemnation of media outlets in his Phoenix Arizona speech. Recent Gallup data show that he is taking advantage of a gigantic partisan split in views of news organizations’ ability to get the facts straight as opposed to being often inaccurate. Essentially Democrats believe in news media accuracy; Republicans don’t.

Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos is a strong advocate of charter schools. A majority of Americans have a positive view of charter school’s ability to do a good job educating students, putting them below private and parochial schools, but ahead of home schooling and public schools. Republicans are more positive than Democrats about all forms of schooling except one — and that is public schools.

As U.S. businesses face pressure to grow, Americans persistently report much more confidence in small business than in big business — creating a dilemma for gigantic enterprises who keep acquiring and merging to satisfy investor and stockholder demands for growth. A new poll reveals the reasons why Americans like “small” business. Of course, Americans may like small businesses in theory, as they do, while still shopping at Walmart and using Amazon because of the prices and selection.

Gallup’s annual report on how Americans view business and industry sectors is out. An interesting combination of computer/internet and food sectors are at the top of the list. On the other hand, the federal government remains dead last on the list. Three other industries that are net negative in the minds of the average American are the pharmaceutical industry, the health care industry, and the oil and gas industry.

But, American’s overall positive sentiments about the industries tracked over time is up — more positive. Business doing better in a collective sense.