According to a University of Michigan telephone survey of more than 500 people, 24% fear losing their health coverage in the next year - and many of that 24% are 50-64 years old and female. Forty-six percent worry they won’t be able to afford health care in the future – especially as the U.S. government estimated 2009 health care will average $8,160 for every man, woman and child – an increase of $356 since 2008. Finally, 86% think health care reform is part of fixing the economic crisis. The survey’s goal was to measure consumer confidence in health care. Unfortunately, it’s unhealthy.
According to a 2009 online survey done by Zogby Interactive, the Internet is America’s main source of information. More than 50% of 3,030 adults surveyed would choose the Internet if they had only 1 source of news, 21% said television, 10% said radio and 10% said newspapers. Nearly 40% thought the Internet was the most reliable source, 17% thought television, 16% thought newspapers and 13% thought radio. When participants were asked what the main source of information will be in 5 years, 82% said the Internet, 13% said television and 0.5% said newspapers – not good news for newspapers.
According to a survey of more than 2,500 people done by Futuresource Consulting, 8% of Internet users in Britain, France, Germany and the U.S. admitted to downloading video illegally. Two-thirds surveyed in Britain watched movies, television and videos on PC’s or laptops and almost that many in the U.S. did the same. In both countries 15% did it illegally. Because this is stealing, governments are getting involved. Britain proposed measures to slow or block Internet access to illegal downloaders, France passed a bill to disconnect illegal downloaders and a U.S. woman was fined almost $2 million for illegally sharing music – otherwise known as stolen property.
According to a 2009 Associated Press-Petside online poll, increasing numbers of Americans – 49% of the more than 1,000 polled – gave their pets humanlike names. Approximately half were dog owners and half were cat owners. In the Veterinary Pet Insurance data base, Rover was #2,534 on the pet name list and Fido was #2,866. Max was the most frequently used name, but it was used less than 2% of the time. Using human names for pets supposedly reflects owners seeing pets as full members of the family – but don’t human family members have pet names for each other?