Should we care about political polls?

Make Me Smart

Marketplace

Business, News

4.6 • 5.5K Ratings

🗓️ 17 November 2022

⏱️ 15 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Every election season, headlines speculate about which political polls got it right and how others got it so wrong. A listener called in to ask if they even matter. We’ll get into it and answer questions about whether the 2017 tax cuts set us up for inflation and state lawmakers’ surprisingly low wages. Plus, how are individual shareholders affected when companies like Twitter go from public to private?

Here’s everything we talked about today:

- “Reporting on Asian Americans’ views is a challenge even as polls evolve” from Pew Research Center

- “Why it’s so hard to agree on the causes of inflation” from Marketplace

- “Conservatives rally behind pay raise for Nebraska lawmakers” from AP News

- “Comparison of state legislative salaries” from Ballotpedia

- “Low Pay In State Legislatures Means Some Can’t Afford The Job” from NPR

- “Twitter shareholders vote in favor of Elon Musk’s $44 billion takeover deal” from CNN Business

- “How do I vote at a corporate election?” from Investor.gov

- “Few individual investors participate in shareholder voting. Here’s how that may be changing” from CNBC

If you’ve got a question about the economy, business or technology, let us know. We’re at makemesmart@marketplace.org, or leave us a message at 508-U-B-SMART.

Transcript

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0:00.0	That is not in my power.
0:02.0	Not in my power.
0:06.0	Oh, look, you spoke the words and magically it happened.
0:08.0	Oh, look, I said and it happens. Isn't that funny?
0:12.0	Yeah.
0:13.0	Hello, I'm Kimberly Adams.
0:15.0	Welcome back to Make Me Smart, where we make today make sense.
0:19.0	I'm Kyle Rizdal. This is, of course, what do you want to know Wednesday,
0:22.0	where we answer questions that you are faithful and loyal listeners have sent in.
0:26.0	If you've got a question about the economy or business or technology,
0:29.0	send it to us, make me smart at Marketplace.org,
0:32.0	or you can leave us a voicemail 508UB smart.
0:35.0	We will get right to it with our first question. Go.
0:39.0	Hi, Kyle and Kimberly. This is Alan from Baltimore, Maryland.
0:42.0	And after the election, I'm wondering, why do we care about polls so much?
0:46.0	Every year, there's a lot of conversation about the polls leading in.
0:50.0	What they mean, what they don't mean, that they after,
0:53.0	there's all the conversation about why they were wrong or why they were right,
0:56.0	or why one poll was better than another.
0:59.0	Why do we care at all?
1:01.0	Thanks for making me smart.
1:03.0	Over to you, once and for Chief Washington correspondent for Marketplace,
	...

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