“Honesty and Ethics Poll Finds Congress’ Image Tarnished”
Dec 14th, 2009 • Posted in: Research Report“For first time, majority of Americans say its members have low ethics”
From Gallup:
“For the first time in Gallup’s annual Honesty and Ethics of Professions poll, a majority of Americans — 55% — say the honesty and ethical standards of ‘members of Congress’ are low or very low — slightly worse than ’senators,’ whose ethics are rated low by 49%. By contrast, 83% of Americans say nurses have either very high or high ethical standards, positioning them at the top of Gallup’s 2009 ranking of various professions.
“The percentage of Americans now believing that members of Congress have low ethics is up from 46% in 2008 and 45% in 2007, and has more than doubled since the start of the decade — rising from 21% in November 2000 to 55% today.
“‘The deterioration in Congress’ ethics rating over the past year has occurred about equally among all three party groups.’…
“Nurses are the undisputed leader in this year’s list of professions — and have ranked No. 1 all but one year since they were added to the list in 1999 (’firefighters’ was asked as a special item in November 2001, and ranked first in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks). In addition to nurses, pharmacists, medical doctors, police, and engineers are all well regarded for their honesty and ethics by more than 6 in 10 Americans….
“Aside from members of Congress, the only other occupational group that the majority of Americans see as having low or very low honesty and ethical standards is car salespeople. At least 40% of Americans perceive several other professions as having low integrity, including senators, stockbrokers, HMO managers, insurance salespeople, and lawyers. Still, it should be noted that two professions not included on the list this year — telemarketers and lobbyists — received even lower ratings in 2008 (60% and 64% ‘poor’ ethics ratings, respectively) than members of Congress do today….”
For the full release from Gallup, Dec. 9, click here.
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About a year ago I saw what I think was this poll in the Christian Science Monitor. As I recall high school teachers were ranked third after nurses and pharmacists. Are they not included in this years poll or have they suddenly fallen from grace?