More than half of white Americans are angrier about news and current events than they were last year and no longer believe in the American dream, according to a new survey released Sunday from NBC News/Survey Monkey/Esquire.
Fifty-four percent of white Americans said the news makes them more angry than it used to. That's more than the average of all respondents, 49 percent, and also more than black Americans, 33 percent, and Latinos, 43 percent, reported NBC News.
Seventy-three percent of Caucasians said they hear or read something in the news that makes them angry at least once a day, while 66 percent of Hispanics and 56 percent of African-Americans said the same.
The survey also found that Republicans are more irked by current events than Democrats, 61 percent to 42 percent. Seventy-seven percent on the right said they get angry at least once a day while 67 percent on the left said the same. Dysfunction in Congress and consumer fraud were the two issues Republicans said get under their skin the most, while Democrats ranked police shooting unarmed black men as the number one issue.
Perhaps surprisingly, women were more outraged than men, 53 percent to 44 percent. Women tend to be angrier than men about police shooting unarmed black men and billionaires buying elections, and men were more upset about global warming and gay marriage. They were equally angry about consumer fraud, 80 percent for women to 79 percent for men, congressional dysfunction, 74 percent to 73 percent, and Bill Cosby's alleged misconduct, 65 percent to 62 percent.
Fifty-four percent of whites said that the American dream - the idea that anyone can work hard and move up the socio-economic ladder - once held true but no longer does. Overall, 52 percent of the country said the American dream is no longer a reality, while 36 percent said the American dream lives on and 11 percent said it was never true. African-Americans were slightly more optimistic about the American dream than whites or Hispanics.
Fifty-four percent of Americans said they are worse off financially than they previously thought they would be, and a plurality said they believe this is because it is more difficult to succeed than it was in the past. Americans making more than $150,000 were the least angry, while those earning less than $15,000 were the most angry.
Nearly three-quarters of respondents said the gap between rich people and everyone else is getting wider, and 18 percent blamed Wall Street. Seventeen percent said "capitalism in general" was at fault and 17 percent cited "globalization and jobs going overseas."
The survey was conducted online from Nov. 20 to 24 among 3,257 adults. It has a margin of error of 2.2 and 7.4 percentage points for the various groupings.
