Americans Look to Private Sector for Help

A majority of Americans find the federal government wasteful and lack faith in its ability to solve the nation’s problems, so they’re looking to the private sector for help.

Some 51 percent of Americans say the federal government is often wasteful and inefficient, while only 9 percent say it is well-run and efficient, according to the 2013 Public Affairs Pulse survey.

Major companies score reasonably well on this question, with only 17 percent of Americans saying they are wasteful and 28 percent saying they are well-run. (The majority believe big firms fall somewhere between the two extremes.)

Amid this perceived lack of government efficiency and the fact that only 37 percent of the public express a lot or some trust and confidence that the federal government will solve the country’s most pressing problems, Americans are turning to the private sector for help.

A majority think major companies should take on more responsibility to help solve problems that have traditionally been the responsibility of government, such as providing community services like food banks (70%), improving the quality of education (64%) and improving the quality and affordability of health care (62%).

In addition, a majority say it’s more important to keep taxes at current levels (53%) than to maintain current levels of government services (39%). And 58 percent say it’s more important to keep taxes level, while 33 percent are more concerned about preserving government jobs.

These views may help explain why the public has not been more outraged by the budget sequestration, which implements federal spending cuts mandated by the Budget Control Act of 2011.