As New Year Begins, Outlook Brightens

Surveys in some daily newspapers indicate that many Americans believe that 2006 will be better in some ways than 2005. A Quinnipiac University survey conducted in November and December found that 79 percent of 1,230 registered voters see a brighter future in the year ahead, despite fears of war and terrorism. Only 10 percent of those who responded said they expect 2006 will be worse than 2005. Another gauge of Americans' optimism about their present situation, the New York-based Conference Board's consumer confidence index, rose to 103.6 from 98.3 last month. The index showed the biggest jump of 2005 and the highest since August.

The younger the person the brighter the outlook. Ninety-three percent of people under 30 polled in the survey said that while there’s still gloom and doom in the world and peace on earth doesn’t seem to be any more achievable than it ever was, they believe their own lives are getting better. Some 63 percent of the senior citizens who responded shared their viewpoint.

More Americans described jobs as plentiful and planned to buy cars and major appliances in the next six months. The Conference Board consumer confidence index, helped by falling gasoline prices and an improving labor market, in December reached the highest point since a peak of 105.5 in August, before hurricanes devastated the Gulf Coast. As gasoline prices fell in the past two months and the economy added more jobs, the National Retail Federation estimates holiday spending rose 6 percent.

The poll numbers indicated that only 37 percent of seniors and a mere 7 percent of the under-30 crowd viewed the new year pessimistically. Perhaps it’s due only to a belief that 2006 can’t possibly be as bad as 2005, with record hurricanes, earthquakes and other natural disasters, but we’d like to think that in this case, majority opinion prevails. Last year was an aberration as far as calamitous meteorological and geophysical phenomena are concerned and while news of catastrophes brought about by human action did not decrease dramatically, neither did such stories overwhelm our every waking moment, either.

There’s room for believing that things have a possibility for improving. This is true on a local level as well: Governor George Pataki last week pointed out that crimes against both persons and property in New York state continue to drop and Queens District Attorney Richard Brown noted that this borough leads the city in decreasing rates of violent crime for the third year in a row.

There is surely good and valid reason for the optimism shown by the Quinnipiac survey respondents. At this, the start of a new year that in many ways will wipe the slate clean for many people and give many others a reason to see the past as a learning experience to guide their future actions and beliefs, we share their belief that we can take the best of the past and bring about a better, brighter tomorrow in 2006. Given all the reasons we see for a better, brighter 2006, the Gazette wishes all its readers the best possible New Year.