Americans worry about jobs, future

WASHINGTON — Not just Wall Street is running scared.

The consequences of the financial meltdown now are sinking in with ordinary Americans, who worry whether their jobs, home values, children's futures and retirement plans are at risk, according to a poll out this week.

Eight in 10 fear the crisis will affect them directly, according to an AP-GfK poll. Yet 45 percent of all adults still opposed the proposed government bailout.

Some 38 percent were in favor of the $700 billion financial market rescue plan and 16 percent were not sure in the poll, which was conducted Sept. 27-30.

"I'm really mixed on it," said David Couch, 49, a lawyer in Little Rock, Ark. "I think probably we need it to stabilize the markets, but I really think there needs to be a lot of provisions attached to it so that it won't happen again and the people who were responsible won't profit from it," said Couch, a Democrat who plans to vote for Barack Obama.

On Monday, the House rejected the first version of that plan. But supporters sought to revive it by adding several tax breaks and an increase to federal deposit insurance limits. The Senate passed a revised version Wednesday.

The banks get the most of the blame for the crisis caused by risky mortgages, followed closely in the poll by the federal government for not providing adequate regulation. But most also place some blame on people who took out loans they couldn't repay.

"I'd like to blame everything on Bush. I think everyone else is," said Irene Kislus, 68, of Las Cruces, N.M. She blames the federal government for lax regulation, saying the crisis didn't develop overnight. "They'd have to know over time this was happening," she said. "I think they kept it quiet way too long."

Kislus, a retiree who works part time at the records department of New Mexico State University, is a Republican who plans to vote for John McCain.

It's a "scary time," she said. "The future certainly looks bleak, very bleak."

Some 55 percent say the government should have a role, but only a limited one, when bailing out failing private businesses, limiting such intervention to certain major companies. More activism by government was favored by 25 percent and 16 percent preferred that the government not act.

Daphne Williams, 43, of Newark, N.J., an office administrator at JPMorgan Chase, said she supports the bailout "because I think we need it. I'm afraid if it doesn't happen, then we're going to be in trouble."

Williams, a Democrat who intends to vote for Obama, said she definitely worries about her job, especially since she works in the financial services industry. She puts those concerns at about 7.5 on a scale of one to 10.

She can't figure out where the blame lies for the crisis. "You know, I really don't know," she said. "It just has to get fixed."

Three in four said any bailout package should include limits on executive compensation. Such limits are in both the bill that was rejected by the House and the revised Senate measure.

Roughly four in ten said that the federal government was "moving at about the right pace" in responding to the current financial crisis, slightly more who said the government was moving too slowly. Only 23 percent said they thought the government was moving "too quickly."

Over half of those surveyed fear having to work longer before retirement because of lost savings, and nearly half worry that the value of their homes will be reduced over the long term. Almost a third think the crisis could put their jobs at risk.

Eight in 10 fear the increased federal debt will be a burden for their children and grandchildren. The national debt is now close to $10 trillion.

The AP-GfK poll involved telephone interviews of a nationwide sample of 1,160 adults from Saturday through Tuesday.

Interviews were conducted on both landline and cell phones. It has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2.9 percentage points, 3.4 percentage points for likely voters.