American’s Views on their Country’s Competitiveness

In March of 2021 we asked one of our national panels a handful of questions to measure how well Americans feel their country stacks up to others when it comes to issues such as healthcare, education, and personal finance. We repeated these set of questions in October of 2022 to see whether Americans have become more bullish or pessimistic about the U.S.

We will be rolling out the full report over the next week, but will be sharing a few of the results here in the meantime, starting with views on economic competitiveness.

On average, we found that Americans still view that they would be better off in the United States when it comes to getting a higher paying job, starting a new business, and being able to retire comfortably (although with these last two the scores are perilously close to the 50/50 mark). That being said the numbers have all headed in a negative direction, especially for starting a new business.

Looking at the breakdown of the numbers we find that the percent of Americans who think they are 100% better off in the U.S. or 100% better off somewhere else held relatively steady over the past 18 months. That being said there has been a clear shift towards an other country being a better bet. Currently 36% feel they would be better off in another country, a 56% increase from 2021.

The numbers around whether Americans feel they would be better off starting a company in the U.S. or somewhere else are eye opening. In March of 2021, 6 in 10 Americans felt they would be better off starting a new business in the U.S. That number dropped 10 points and now stands at a bare majority (51%). The breakdown of the numbers shows how much opinions have shifted.

Eighteen months ago just 6 percent of Americans felt they would 100% be better off in another country if they were starting a new company. That number has now doubled with 12% feeling this way. In March of last year 8 percent of Americans strongly leaned towards another country being a better bet. Today that number stands at 17%. The fact that we are looking at a near 50/50 split when it comes to whether the U.S. is the best bet for starting a new company does not point to a bright future.

Similarly to the question about starting a company, Americans have become much more pessimistic on their prospects of staying put when it comes to retirement. In March of last year a majority felt the U.S. was the best choice for them with an additional 12% saying it was a 50/50 proposition in their minds. Currently just 47% of Americans feel that the U.S. will be the best place for them to retire comfortably and a near equal percent feel that another country would be the better choice.