I saw a series of Citibank poster ads in the subway featuring ecstatically happy people traipsing about their perfectly manicured yards, buying new apartments, dancing through vacations, mortgages
paid, traveling to fun places in cool VW microbuses.
Um, gee, I wonder if it's just me or are these idiots and their agency completely out of touch? No I guess it's not just me. A new Harris
poll finds that the level of alienation (a sense of isolation from a community, or society at large) among Americans has jumped up 11 points in one year, one of the highest single year movements ever,
according to the firm, which says the last time the Index jumped by this much was from 1972 to 1973 during the Nixon Administration.
Harris says it defines it around whether people feel their
interests are heard and addressed by people with power and influence. This year the Harris Alienation Index is at 63. It was 52 last year, 53 the year before and 58 in 2008 when George W. Bush
was still president. The last time the Alienation Index was in the 60s was during Bill Clinton's administration.
In the poll of 1,956 adults surveyed by telephone and online between August 8
and 15, 2011 73% of all adults believe the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer, compared to 68% last year. Seventy three percent believe that the people running the country don't
really care what happens to you, compared to 50% in 2010, an increase of 23%. Sixty six percent believe that what you think doesn't count very much anymore, compared to 52% last year, an increase of
14%. Sixty three percent feel that "most people in power try to take advantage of people like the respondent compared to 53% last year, an increase of 10%. Forty one percent believe that they are left
out of things going on around them, compared to 37% last year.