This column is written by a journalist. We rank 22 in a list of 26 in an Australian Readers’ Digest survey published this week about Australia’s most trusted professions.
Politicians are at the bottom, just above them are car seller and real-estate agents. Lawyers are on 21. Ambulance officers, fire-fighters and assorted medical and help-giving professionals are on the top.
The poll sampled 1500 Australians in a population of 20 million. Pollsters were not rated among the professions. Perhaps that is because the vast majority of the population, asked about the accuracy of a poll of a mere 1500 people in a population of 20 million, would laugh at the poll’s obvious absurdity.
And they would be wrong.
The problem with polling is not so much whether the sample is representative of the whole, but whether the opinions extracted are worth anything.
A sample of 1500 people, if selected randomly, will provide a chillingly accurate assessment of the opinion of 20 million people’s often-worthless opinions.
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