Study: Honesty Ranks High, Foreign Policy Low on List of Concerns for Small Business Owners This Election

You could ask a third grader from another country what the central theme of this year's U.S. presidential election is and you'd get the right answer: It's about the economy.

No surprise that this is true also for small business owners. But what follows the economy?

---

According to a study by the George Washington University Graduate School of Political Management and Thumbtack.com, it's ethics and honesty. That falls in line with the brand-new-dance-level hype that has kept the otherwise dull act of fact checking in national headlines this election season. For bonus fun, consider that this category of ethics and honesty ranked as more of a priority among independents than it did among self-identified adherents of either major political party.

Other findings from the small-business survey:

\n
• Respondents believed that Obama is more supportive of small business than Romney.
• Respondents felt that gas and fuel costs were most burdensome of a long list of costs (including health care costs, insurance costs and minimum wage costs, among other things) to their business.
• Respondents ranked foreign policy/national security among the lowest-priority issues when making their choice between Obama and Romney.
\n

Check out the findings for yourself (PDF).

Image via Flickr (cc) user cliff1066