Economic Indicators looks at youth reflections on Superbond

We reported on Tuesday that the major findings of a poll measuring public opinions on debt, spending and taxes show that overall there is a high level of dissatisfaction in the handling of the debt issue; that spending should be cut; taxes should not be increased; and that government should pay off the Superbond and its high debt burden. This segment looks into detail at the responses per demographics of age, gender, and district. The overall results show that the younger population is not satisfied with the government’s handling of the Superbond; of which the most are females and are from the Cayo district. In respect of the age group which was polled on whether or not they were confident and trust in the government handling of the debt/Superbond issue, the highest percentage who said they were not confident was between eighteen and twenty-two years of age. The age group that said they favored paying the debt obligations is between twenty-eight and thirty two years. Now, ninety-three percent of those who polled said yes to government having a spending limit that prevents it from spending more than it takes.  That age group is between twenty-three and twenty-seven.

Turning to the district demographics; the district that polled the highest in saying that it does not have confidence or trust in the government handling of the debt/Superbond issue, is the Cayo District. Seventy-two percent responded in the negative. In the Toledo District, however, as much as ninety percent believed the government should pay debt obligations. The Belize district heavily polled in favor, eighty five percent, that the government should have a spending limit. In respect of gender, seventy percent of women said they were not confident in the government’s handling of the Superbond in comparison to fifty-eight percent among men. Seventy-seven percent of women also said government should pay its debt obligations. In essence, the young people are not happy with the handling of the Superbond and most of them are women.