Thanks a lottery
One of every two American adults (49%) has, at some time in the past, purchased a ticket for the weekly million dollar lotteries that are held by many states in the U.S. Of these purchasers, 25% say they buy a ticket "just about every week;" 11% about every other week; 17% once a month; 23% less often than that, and a surprising 24% "only when the jackpot is way up in the millions."
Obviously, the reference is to the 20, 30, 50 and even 100 million dollar jackpots that have been occurring in recent months. Any one of those prizes would probably be more than most people could cope with in the course of a lifetime. So why not consider an alternative—creating more multi-million dollar prizes, to be shared by more people?
That's the question posed to a national sample of over 1,000 adults in a recent OmniTel study, the continuing omnibus service of R.H. Bruskin Associates.
Specifically, the question was: "Some states are considering a change in their method of selecting winners when the jackpot exceeds 10 million dollars. Instead of one set of six winning numbers there would now be two sets; that is, a person would have two chances to win. First they'll draw one set of six numbers, followed by a second drawing of another six winning numbers. The result would be more winners splitting the jackpot. Would this make you more interested in buying lottery tickets, less interested, or wouldn't it make any difference to you?"
If this were to happen, 45% of all lottery ticket buyers indicate that they would be even more interested in buying tickets, only 8% say they would be less interested, and 47% indicated that it wouldn't make any difference to them.
Consumers rate quality of foreign and U.S. goods
A recent survey of 1,001 adult heads of households conducted by Opinion Research Corp. reveals that most affluent Americans are favorably impressed by the quality of German and Japanese products; in fact, more Americans rate these countries' products as superior in quality than do so for American goods.
A further reflection for the high regard for Japanese products is that Japan is seen as being unfairly blamed for America's economic problems by much of the American public.
The more upscale segments of the U.S. population have a particularly favorable impression of German and Japanese goods. College-educated consumers, and those with annual incomes of $50,000 or more, are much more likely to believe that the products of Germany and Japan are of superior quality than they are to bestow the same laurels on American manufacturers. About one-third of upper-income consumers designate German and Japanese products as superior in quality, only one-fifth believe U.S. goods to be in the same class. Among college-educated Americans, the results are even less favorable for U.S. manufacturers: German and Japanese products are deemed to be of superior quality by 29% and 37%, respectively. U.S. products are rated this highly by only one college graduate out of ten.
Among American consumers overall, the preference for foreign products is less pronounced than among the more affluent segment of the public; nevertheless, Japanese (25%) and German (21%) products do rank ahead of American goods (20%) in terms of ratings for superior quality.
Korean and Taiwanese products continue to suffer from an image of cheapness and shoddy quality. Virtually no one rates the goods of these countries as being of generally superior quality, while more than half rate their quality as not very good or poor.
The praise that Americans lavish on Japanese products may help to explain one aspect of the U.S. public's attitude towards trade with Japan. A majority of Americans (54%) believe there is truth in the statement that the U.S. is blaming Japan for its own economic problems. At the same time, there is a large proportion (42%) who accept the idea that Japanese companies are competing unfairly.
Americans' opinions on this issue are divided along generational lines. The belief that Japanese companies are competing unfairly with their American counterparts is held by 48% of people aged 60 or older, compared to 35% of the under 30 age group. While 40% of senior Americans believe that Japan is being blamed unfairly for the United States' own economic problems, about two-thirds (63%) of young Americans believe Japan is a scapegoat for America's economic woes.