A new Financial Times/Harris Poll finds that when it comes to reducing deficits and public debts, cutting spending is definitely preferred to raising taxes by adults in the five largest European countries and the United States. Half of French adults (50%), just over two in five Italians (45%), Spaniards (44%) and Germans (41%), and just under two in five Americans (37%) and one-quarter of Britons (25%) all would prefer spending cuts to paying higher taxes. Around two in five in each of the six countries (between 37% and 46%) would prefer a mixture of the two, with spending cuts bearing the bigger part of the burden.

Looking at how spending cuts will impact the economic recovery, majorities in all six countries (between 84% in France and 62% in Italy) believe that public spending cuts are necessary to help long term economic recovery. There is not a feeling that public spending cuts are likely to harm the economic recovery–only 38% of Italians, 33% of Germans, 31% of Britons, 29% of Spaniards, 27% of Americans and 16% of French adults think that it will.

These are some of the findings of a Financial Times/Harris Poll conducted online by Harris Interactive® among 6,164 adults aged 16-64 within France (1,011), Germany (1,010), Great Britain (1,091), Spain (1,005), U.S. (1,019) and adults aged 18-64 in Italy (1,028) between June 22 and July 1, 2010.

One other suggestion is that governments should make the rich contribute more than the less well off by paying more in taxes. Very strong majorities in Italy (87%), Germany (87%), France (85%), Spain (82%), Great Britain (78%) and the United States (71%) all agree with this idea. In fact, majorities in Germany (61%), Spain (60%), Italy (56%) and France (51%) strongly agree with it.

The impact on families

Although people prefer cutting public spending, they also realize that those cuts will impact their families. Almost half of Spaniards (49%), just over two in five Italians (44%) and French (42%), two in five Americans (40%), just under two in five Britons (39%) and over one third of Germans (35%) believe cutting public spending will affect them and their family a moderate amount. In addition, over one-third of Italians (34%), just over one in five Britons (21%), one in five Germans (20%), and just under one in five Spaniards (18%), French (16%) and Americans (16%) say spending cuts will affect them and their family either a great deal or a lot.

Spending cuts and policy areas

When it comes to spending cuts, people believe certain areas should receive more severe cuts than other areas. Almost three-quarters of Americans (72%) and almost two-thirds of Britons (64%) say aid to developing countries should bear the biggest part of the spending cuts burden. While over half of Spaniards (57%), Germans (54%) and French (53%) say the same, that is not their top choice. Two-thirds of Germans (67%), and over half of Spaniards (58%), French (56%) and Italians (55%) say the biggest part of the spending cuts burden should come from defense. Over half of Britons (51%) also say unemployment benefits should bear the biggest part of the spending cuts burden.

Budget Deficits

Many countries have let their budget deficits rise in order to fight the financial crisis. Majorities in France (68%), Italy (68%), the U.S. (59%), Germany (58%), Spain (55%) and Great Britain (54%) say that was not the right move for these countries to make.

One argument is that the budget deficits that have occurred and the spending cuts call for a re-examination of Europe's welfare states. Over two-thirds of Americans (77%), Britons (77%), Germans (73%), Spaniards (70%), Italians (68%) and French (68%) all agree with this argument.

So What?

The worldwide economic woes are not going away anytime soon. When it comes to how to address these fiscal issues, one thing is clear – spending cuts are what people are looking for, not higher taxes. What is also clear, even in the countries that are seen as more traditional welfare states, is that this economic environment may have shifted people's priorities, and it might be time for some change.