Survey of Consumer Attitudes and Behavior, Fall 1974

This survey was undertaken to assess consumer sentiment and buying plans. Open-ended questions were asked concerning evaluations and expectations about personal finances, employment, recession, price changes, and the national business situation. Additional variables probe respondents' buying intentions for a house, automobiles, appliances, and other consumer durables, and respondents' appraisals of present market conditions for purchasing houses and other durables. Other variables probe respondents' degree of satisfaction with the amount of money in their savings accounts, their assessment of their financial status relative to the previous year and to that of their parents at a comparable age, their views of government and government officials, government's role in improving the quality of life, and future energy supply, as well as feelings about their lives, satisfaction with life in the United States, and their income and jobs. Data are also provided on their knowledge of current affairs, as well as their opinion of the relative merits of small cars and standard full-size cars and small foreign and American cars, penalties for marijuana use, their treatment by public officials, freedom to make public speeches against democracy, communism in the United States and free speech, the United States government's help to the South Vietnamese government, government support for the rights of Black people, racial desegregation, Black activism, preferred means of social change, causes of crime and lawlessness, monetary drive of lawyers and doctors and the state of the public good, and unionization of workers. Information is also provided on respondents' car ownership and plans to buy a new one, political party identification, self-identified ideological position, political party candidate preference, and the state of health of respondents' parents, including the kind of health care and physical assistance provided to them. Demographic variables provide information on respondents' age, sex, race, marital status, education, occupation, religion, employment status, and family income.