There are two reports

GO TO FILE: 1 A good year … the distribution of value in society (15 pages)

GO TO FILE: 2 A good year: the distances between Democrats and Republicans … and Independents … and All (16 pages) 

Today Donald Trump becomes president again.

34% of Republicans predict 2025 will be a great year for the country;

and 37% of Democrats predict it will be a terrible year for the country.

On this, predicting the future for the country, Republicans and Democrats are far apart.

Each percentage is substantial. However each is only a minority of their group.

So there are differences between groups and differences within groups.

Turning to their personal situation over the past year, Republicans and Democrats are in close proximity. The mean response is: OK, neither good nor bad.

So value for the person is different from value for the country …

… life is not the same as politics?

Group differences are different for different issues.

Detailed knowledge about group differences avoids simplicities and maybe the associated conflict.

…

1 Introduction

President again

Landslides and narrow victories

Great and terrible expectations for the year 2025

A good year: the two reports

2 Society, groups and individuals

“… bring a fractured nation together again …”

“The party is uniting.” [UK]

Society: not united but divided into groups …

… USA, split into two: Democrats and Republicans? … but also Independents

… English Civil War: Roundheads and Cavaliers

Society and its groups: not united but distributed in space

3 All the respondents: extracts from the first report

A good year, past and future: individuals and society

The distribution of value in society

Four basic questions … four years

The mean of the distribution

4 Two questions: four groups …

… distributions in close proximity

… Democrats and Republicans at their farthest apart

5 Four questions, four years - sixteen means

6 Overlap: the distance between two distributions

7 The degree of certainty

Independents are most uncertain, Republicans least

8 Links

Appendix 1 The sixty-four means; and differences

Appendix 2 The distance tables for all four questions in 2024 

FILE 1

1 The main section

2 Detailed analysis … Figures 2 to 5

3 The other questions

4 A good year in the UK

5 A forthcoming report …

  … A good year: Republican, Democrat and Independent distributions

6 Value in society … a good life, life satisfaction, positive value and love

7 “May each day of your life be a good day …” (song)

Postscript (see below)

  1 The main section

“ A Guid New Year To Ane An’ A’ ” (Scottish song)

A good year: personal, social, economic, technological and political aspects …

… and environmental aspects

… conceptions of social reality

… value in society: a focus on the thing itself

A good year, past and future: individuals and society

The distribution of value in society

Four basic questions … four years

Conceptions of social reality: uncertainty

The mean of the distribution

The shape of the distribution: peak value and peak percentage

The experience of a year and the prediction of a year … uncertainty

     2 Detailed analysis … Figures 2 to 5

Four basic questions: all the respondents

The value of the year “to you personally”, USA 2021-2024

The predicted value of the coming year “to you personally”, USA 2022-2025

The value of the year “for the country”, USA 2021-2024

The predicted value of the coming year “for the country”, USA 2022-2025

Postscript

Relevant to the social aspects of a good year is:

“The social bonds that tie us are the UK’s hidden wealth.” The Times. January 13 2025: 22. David Halpern.

David Halpern. Andy Haldane:

https://demos.co.uk/research/social-capital-2025-the-hidden-wealth-of-nations/

See also: Robert Putnam on bonding capital.

THE END