The U.S. public holds Big Business in shockingly low regard.

Robert Weissman
on HuffPo

A November 2007 Harris poll found that less than 15 percent of the population believes each of the following industries to be "generally honest and trustworthy:" tobacco companies (3 percent); oil companies (3 percent); managed care companies such as HMOs (5 percent); health insurance companies (7 percent); telephone companies (10 percent); life insurance companies (10 percent); online retailers (10 percent); pharmaceutical and drug companies (11 percent); car manufacturers (11 percent); airlines (11 percent); packaged food companies (12 percent); electric and gas utilities (15 percent). Only 32 percent of adults said they trusted the best-rated industry about which Harris surveyed, supermarkets.

These are remarkable numbers. It is very hard to get this degree of agreement about anything. By way of comparison, 79 percent of adults believe the earth revolves around the sun; 18 percent say it is the other way around.

There's even some stuff that suggests the American public would like to take another look at government regulation ... the rest after the click ...

My comment: I guess this has to be filed under "You can fool all of the people some of the time and some of the people all of the time, but you can't fool all the people all the time."

But then, doesn't he sun revolve around the earth? and doesn't the Universe revolve around us?