CAN YOU SPARE A DIME?

ET CETERA

AMERICANS WANT CASH—EVEN MORE THAN SNAP-OF-THE-FINGERS WEIGHT LOSS OR LONGER LIVES. AND OLDER FOLKS THINK YOUNGER FOLKS WON'T HAVE IT NEARLY SO GOOD AS THEY DID.

THE 60 MINUTES/VANITY FAIR POLL

OK. if we make a little money? Sure. Americans are fine with the reaping of benefits, although it depends a bit on who you are. It’s perfectly acceptable if, say, some money comes one’s own way: a windfall of $10,000, tax-free, outpolled other temptations we might aspire to attain without effort—39 percent preferred the quick cash to losing weight, gaining language fluency, and so on. (An encouraging note: in the 18-29 age range, almost half the respondents instead chose an instant degree.) While it’s not necessarily what we’d wish, we just don’t see Gen Y-ers leading better lives than baby-boomers do: 61 percent of Americans (though only 45 percent of Gen Y-ers themselves) are pessimistic about the younger generation’s quality-of-life prospects. We also think it’s all right for Internet moguls to be rich: far more of us can accept their obscene compensation than can accept the obscene compensation of professional athletes, bankers, film stars, and lobbyists. But illegal immigrants are less entitled, we feel: two-thirds of Americans would like to adopt the Fremont, Nebraska, law requiring businesses and landlords to verify that employees and renters are here legally. Still, we apparently think our illegal immigrants are better than anybody else’s illegal immigrants: 71 percent of us, were we allowed to play fast and loose with geography, geology, and the laws of physics, proclaim, in effect, jViva Mexico!—you can keep your borders with Italy, Ireland, Australia, and the rest, and just “leave our neighbors as they are.” (On the other hand, our geopolitical antennae do need some tuning: more than three-quarters of respondents were unable to identify David Cameron as the prime minister of Great Britain.) Despite all our materialistic worries, it turns out that the item we’d most want to take with us to any afterlife isn’t a car or a television or even an iPhone... but a family photo album.

@vf.com SEE THE COMPLETE POLL RESULTS.

NOTE: This poll was conducted at the CBS News interviewing facility among a random sample of 1,167 adults nationwide, interviewed by telephone July 5-8, 2010. Some low-percentage answer choices have been omitted.

The oil company BP has said that their relief wells will be completed in August and the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico will finally be stopped then. Do you believe BP?

Yes 24%. .29% . 24%. .21% No 66. .59. . 65. .70

Which one of the following professions do you think most deserves the large salaries its members receive?

Internet entrepreneurs ° Professional athletes Bankers 12 Film stars 8 Lobbyists 4 None 14 Don't know 15

If one of the following things could happen to you without any effort on your part, which one would you pick?

Receive $10,000 tax-free 39%... 23%... 43%..45%... 42% Get a college or advanced degree 25. 46 .25.. 17. 9 Become fluent in another language 20. .24 .21. 19. 14 Be one year younger 9. 3. 6.. 9. .22 Lose 10 pounds 6. 4. 4.. 9. . 9

When you hear the name David Cameron, what profession comes to mind?

Movie director.27% Foreign head of state.14 Professional soccer player.1 1 American Idol winner. 8 Don't know.40

A Nebraska town recently passed an ordinance requiring businesses and landlords to verify that their employees and renters are in the United States legally in order to prevent illegal immigrants from finding tindi jobs or places to live. Would you favor or oppo pose your own community's adopting this policy?

Favor .66%. .82% ..52%. .67% Oppose ..28 ... ..13 ... .42 .... ..26

Last year, Family Guy became the first animated or cartoon series to be nominated for an Emmy for best comedy since The Flirttstones, in 1961. If animated characters could be nominated for a best-actor Emmy, of the following, whom would you vote for?

Stewie Griffin of Family Guy 1 70 15% 18° Homer Simpson of The Simpsons 16 21 1 1 Dora of Dora the Explorer 9 23 SpongeBob of SpongeBob SquarePants 13. 12.. 15 Hank Hill of King of the Hill 11. 14 8 Eric Cartman of South Park 8.. 10.. 7 Don't know 19.. 19.. 18

If time travel existed, was readily available, and you were guaranteed to return to the present, would you prefer to travel to the past or to the future?

Past 61% 71 o 62% 59% 50% Future 14 29 35 39

An American civilian carrying weapons and night-vision goggles was recently arrested in Pakistan on a personal mission to capture Osama bin laden. Which do you agree with more?

If the pros can't find bin Laden, then people should feel free to take matters into their own hands 20% It's dangerous and will only cause troubleleave it to the pros .75

The King Tut exhibition is currently in the U.S., showing the objects that were buried with him in his tomb, because the Egyptians believed the pharaoh could take things with him into the afterlife. If you could take one of these objects with you to use in the afterlife, which would you take?

A family photo album 47% A pet 2.5 An iPhone or BlackBerry 9 A favorite car A big-screen TV 3

If you could re-arrange the world map, which one of the following selections would you choose as the best northern and southern neighbors for the United States?

Leave our neighbors as they are .71% Italy and Japan .12 Sweden and France . 9 Ireland and Egypt Russia and Australia

Do you think that Americans of "Generation Y"— generally defined as young people born after 1980—will have a quality of life that is better or worse than that of the baby-boomers?

Better 29% 43%..27%..25% 20% Worse 61 •15 65 66 6 • Same 5 4 5 4 /