What do you really want?

From Matthew Yglesias:

"If you ask people what they want, what you find out is what they say they want."

The blog post is a review of "What Americans Really Want... REALLY," by pollster Dr. Frank Luntz. Turns out that the answer very much depends on what the question is.

I found the same force at work when I ran an after-school program. The conventional wisdom is that boredom leads to bad outcomes for disadvantaged youth: after-school programs decrease boredom and, therefore, bad outcomes. And how do we know youth are bored? Because they say they are.

What I observed is that many youth ALWAYS say they are bored, even when they are clearly having fun. In addition, even in tiny, remote towns, there is literally plenty to do. In my somewhat qualified opinion, "boredom" is shorthand for "lack of adult involvement."

Youth who get in trouble, in general, lack the involvement of adults. Programs like Big Brothers / Big Sisters address this need directly. (Disclosure: I was a Big Brother.) But just try to get an adult to spend even a few hours a week with a teen. No wonder they're "bored." They say they want fun. Of course they do. They want sugar, too. What do they REALLY want? A relationship and involvement with adults. And vegetables. Seriously. They just don't know it. Why? Because they are children.