Mike's Minute: Are all our polls doing more harm than good?

The Mike Hosking Breakfast

I wonder if we are doing ourselves more harm than good when it comes to our finances, if not our general mental health, with what seems to be an industry in polling and surveys.

The latest IPSOS work has over 40% of us not happy about money and a decent chunk of us "struggling". What is "struggling"? It's open to a lot of interpretation, isn't it?

Mood doesn’t necessarily deal in fact, and in that is part of the issue.

The facts are, on average, our wages are outpacing inflation. What that means is we are, on average, better off, but the surveys don't show this.

We are in a funk and have been since Covid.

The other part of the problem is the "average" bit. None of us are average, either in our expenditure or income. So, unless you see it, and feel it, and live it, average means nothing.

The age-old question as to whether the price of a basket of groceries is too expensive has been, and forever will be, answered the same – yes it is.

That’s not about maths, or income, or affordability. That’s about mindset.

If you have made up your mind food is too expensive, or you don’t trust the media, or Luxon doesn’t connect with regular people, then evidence comes secondary to mood and vibe and feels.

Is traffic too bad? Is the country on the right track? Do you deserve more income? Does the council waste your rates money? I can line up any number of questions and if I word them the right way I can virtually guarantee you an outcome.

Having then produced the results, I need a compliant media to regurgitate them for an easy headline.

It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. You feel life is too expensive, you feel you are struggling, you read that other people feel like you and so you say to yourself "see, I told you it's true. It's news, it must be true", and around and around we go.

Which is not to say these things don’t have some element of truth about them.

But it's like punching yourself in the head. If you keep doing it what are the chances you'll have a headache at the end of it all?

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