What's good for ______ is good for the country

A Gallup survey in March 2010 asked about the “health care bill currently being considered by Congress” which was passed soon after. It asked whether the bill would make things better, make no difference, or make things worse for a number of groups and institutions. One was the United States as a whole—39% said it would make things better, 11% said no difference, and 50% worse. Others:

You and your family                               -16

Lower income families                             +28

Middle income families                            -16

Upper income families                             -19

Health insurance companies                        -33

Hospitals                                         -18

Doctors                                           -25

Americans who do not have health insurance today  +38

Pharmaceutical companies                          -15

The numbers are the percent saying better minus the percent saying worse. For example 33% said it would make things better for pharmaceutical companies and 48% said it would make things worse, for 33-48=-15. Then I estimated a multiple regression to predict how people felt about the effect on the US as a whole from their feelings about each of the specific groups. The coefficients:

You and your family                               +.37

Lower income families                             +.08

Middle income families                            +.38

Upper income families                             +.06

Health insurance companies                        -.04

Hospitals                                         +.07

Doctors                                           +.11

Americans who do not have health insurance today  +.07

Pharmaceutical companies                          -.04

A positive coefficient means, in effect, that people think that what's good for the group in question is good for the United States as a whole; a negative coefficient means that what's good for the group in question is bad for the United States (this means you, health insurance companies). Most of the coefficients are positive, but two stand out as much larger than the rest: you and your family and the middle class. The large positive coefficient for “you and your family” is understandable—most of us think that our interests happen to coincide with the interests of humanity. But the coefficient for “middle income families” is just as large. Of course, a lot of people think of themselves as “middle income,” but quite a few think of themselves as lower income. In addition, even people who thought of themselves as well off might think that lower income people deserved a break. But views about whether the bill would be good for lower income people (or people without health insurance) had only a small effect—no more than views about whether it would be good for upper income people.