41% Like Boycotts to Protest Bailouts

A surprising number of voters unhappy with government bailouts are ready to act themselves rather than rely on Congress.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 41% of Likely U.S. Voters say they are at least somewhat likely to boycott all companies that have been bailed out by the government, with 16% who say they are Very Likely to do so.

Fifty-six percent (56%) of voters are unlikely to boycott the bailed-out companies and institutions, but that includes just 18% who are Not At All Likely to do so. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

In June 2009, 17% of Americans though it was a good idea to protest the government bailout of General Motors by boycotting the company and refusing to buy its cars. By September, 27% said they or someone they knew had already avoided buying a GM car because of the bailout and government’s takeover of the company.

Nearly one-in-five voters (18%) favor a boycott of all firms that received government bailout money. Fifty-seven percent (57%) oppose such a boycott, while another 26% are undecided.

But 35% believe that if consumers boycotted firms that received bailouts, companies would be less likely to accept them. Slightly fewer voters (30%) don’t believe boycotts would discourage companies from taking bailouts, while 34% aren’t sure. 
 

(Want a free daily e-mail update? If it's in the news, it's in our polls). Rasmussen Reports updates are also available on Twitter or Facebook.

The survey of 1,000 Likely U.S. Voters was conducted on January 17-18, 2011 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.