A SPECTATOR 'S NOTEBOOK
IN 1951 57 per cent. of the population of Western Germany thought they were worse off than they had been a year ago and 12 per cent. thought they were better off; the corres- ponding figures for 1954 are 20 per cent. and 29 per cent. (the remainder, in each case, noticed no difference). The Institute of Demoscopy, which produced these figures, has also made an attempt to find out the relative importance to the Germans of their various worries. The results work out as follows : Worried about money, 46 per cent.; about work, 18 per cent.; about illness in the family, 14 per cent.; about housing prob- lems, 12 per cent.; about another war, 3 per cent.; about the uncertain future, 2 per cent. ' Other worries' account for 15 per cent., and an imperturbable 9 per cent. are not Particularly worried about .anything. I should like to see a Survey of this kind carried out in these islands, but a good litany fresh headings would have, I feel, to be added before we could get a true picture, of the nation's state. of mind. If the denioscopologists omitted from their questionnaire commercial television, the hydrogen bomb, the future, of the Labour Party, and love, ' other worries' might finish up at the top of the poll.
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