Cliff's Take: Our Great American Adaptation
Everything got worse this week.
Millions of Americans are struggling, either with job losses, the emotional toll of self-quarantining or with the virus.
As I told Axios in our most recent edition of the Axios-Ipsos Coronavirus Index, “We’ve never seen this widespread, systemic, forced behavioral change — never in American history — this quickly. It’s unprecedented."
Like last week, I don’t want to spend too much time and space teasing out all the nuances of what our new abnormal means. The situation is changing too fast.
So, for the sake of brevity, I present the five data points that I believe are worth seeing.
- Consumer confidence tanks: From early March to now, consumer confidence dropped by 16 points. This is the single fastest and sharpest decline in our series’ history. It portends strong pull back in consumer spending as households adjust for bad times. Even so, it still, most probably, is a lagging indicator and suggests that the worst is still to come. Last week, 3.3 million people filed for unemployment—a simply staggering number, unprecedented by its speed and size.
- Americans are social distancing at an incredible speed: Americans are moving into isolation as the coronavirus spreads and adapting accordingly. Look at the change in the data week-over-over week! Not much more needs to be said: Americans self-quarantining from 10% to 39%; those going out to eat dropped from 56% to 35%; those canceling events or large gatherings went from 46% to 74%, and so on.
- Work in America is going virtual or going away: Again, look at the data—the changes by themselves tell us everything. All these changes occurred in just one week: Americans “attempting to visit a store or business but finding it closed” goes from 11% to 40%; those told to use video conference or telephone from 34% to 53%, and so on.
- Emotional well-being has gotten even worse: Americans are feeling profound emotional angst. More Americans say that their mental, physical, and emotional well-being is worse off. Humans are creatures of habit and this is perhaps the greatest collective challenge to our day-to-day levels of well-being in modern American history. We are stressed and tired.
- Americans rally around the flag and look to the government in a time of existential threat: Trump’s approval rating on COVID-19 has jumped by 10-points over the last few weeks. And his overall approval rating is at 44% — a new high point for him. In the Hobbesian theory of “war of all against all,” citizens look to those who govern for certainty and security. Are our leaders up to the challenge?
- Finally, take a look at my most recent interview with Tim Farley for SiriusXM’s Morning Briefing where I summarize most of the above. Or check out my recent webinar at Ipsos.
Final Thoughts
The data above unfortunately speaks for itself. Please all be safe. Things will get worse before they get better. But I and Ipsos will be here tracking the unfolding events.
For more information, please contact:
Clifford Young
President, U.S.
Public Affairs
+1 202 420-2016
[email protected]
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