Record number say Americans have 'poor' moral values: Poll

This is something that the rest of the World may Agree

By Edward Era Barbacena

A record number of people say moral values in the United States are "poor" and getting worse.

According to new data from Gallup, the public perception of morality in America is worse than it's ever been.

More than 50% of respondents rated the country's moral values as "poor," beating the previous record by only 1 percentage point. Only 1% of respondents rated the country's morality as "excellent," while 12% said it is "good," and 37% said it is "only fair."

A whopping 78% also say the state of moral values in the country is getting worse.

Although the nation's view of its morality has alwaysbeen negative — an average of 43% have rated morals in the U.S. as "poor" since 2002 — the number of "poor" ratings is higher than ever before.

Seventy-two percent of Republicans gave the country a "poor" rating, the highest number since the poll began. Democrats were more favorable of the nation's moral values, with only 36% agreeing with the "poor" rating. Forty-four percent of independents also agreed with the characterization

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Despite the discrepancy between Republicans and Democrats, they agree that morality is getting worse. Even 68% of Democrats said the outlook for moral values in the U.S. is bleak.

The top problem people cited is a lack of consideration for others. However, given the events of the past few years, racism has also climbed as a top reason. Democrats and independents were roughly twice as likely as Republicans to say racism is a reason for "poor" moral values in the country.

The "Values and Beliefs" poll was conducted between May 2 and May 22, and the margin of error is ±4 percentage points at the 95% confidence level.