60 Minutes/Vanity Fair Poll: April Edition

Welcome to the 60 Minutes/Vanity Fair Poll for April, a month that begins with a most mischievous day, April Fools. The name April is derived from the French and Latin meaning "opening." It refers to the flowers and trees and their annual renewal, think of the cherry blossoms in Washington and Japan (especially meaningful now for the hope of a Japanese renewal). April is also famous for "Opening Day" when America's baseball shrines reopen and their teams start another run at the World Series. Among other days celebrated in April are Arbor Day, World Health Day and Earth Day. Another day not celebrated is Tax Day. For you history buffs, there is Patriots Day which commemorates "the shot heard round the world" - April 19th 1775 in Lexington, Mass. It marked the beginning of a nation that was to become a shining beacon of democracy and it is being replicated now in one way or another in many countries in the Middle East and North Africa. Here's our poll:

Fifty two percent chose giving their kids a better life than theirs as a good description of "The American Dream." Twenty percent said having a successful career and 8 percent said becoming wealthy overnight (how do you do that without inventing a killer app or holding a winning lottery ticket?). Seven percent said owning a home, another 7 percent said doing better than their parents and only 3 percent think becoming famous equates to achieving "The Dream." With our massive deficits looming, a diverse group of pundits and economists have predicted that today's younger generation may be the first in American history not to do better than their parents. Let's hope they do better than their parent's generation in at least one category, running the country.

Check out the Vanity Fair slideshow.

Got a question for our next poll?

To sign or not to sign, that is the question. When it comes to prenuptial agreements, Americans are very evenly divided 48 percent to 47 percent. Not surprisingly, 60 percent of people who are separated or divorced think it is smart to protect themselves and their assets. More men think it's smart and more women see it as assuming in advance that things won't work out. A pre nup may be a buzz killer but without one everybody knows who wins if things don't go well. Send in the lawyers.

Fifteen percent of Americans start a diet either weekly or monthly (now you know why it's a multi billion dollar industry). Twenty seven percent try to lose weight once or twice a year (sports clubs and gyms feast on guilty New Years resolving signer uppers that then forget to actually use them for more than a week). A whopping 56 percent of Americans (63 percent of men and half the ladies) said they never diet. With all the rancor about health care, this is the ticking time bomb in America. Perhaps people and politicians should stop spending all the money treating the disease and start treating the cause with more resources put into educating people about proper diet, exercise and wellness.

If you predicted that 71 percent of Americans think self proclaimed seers and psychics just make stuff up when predicting the future, you may actually have a special gift. Only 21 percent think that special gift really exists. Since early times prophets and oracles have amazed people with their predictions about the future. Lost to the sands of time however are how many other of their predictions didn't come to fruition. Even a broken clock is right twice a day.

Former President Bill Clinton, young in comparison to Hugh Hefner, gets 21 percent. Former world number one golfer Tiger Woods got 19 percent. John Mayer (6 percent) and Silvio Berlusconi (3 percent) get no respect. And the winner is the notorious Charlie Sheen with 25 percent. Hard to know if that's a "winning" comparison." Remember Hef was a seminal (no pun intended) figure in the Sexual Revolution, a very successful journalist and publisher and a guy who could really throw a party.

What would a future American Revolution look like? It is hard to envision but 45 percent of Americans think it will happen in the next century while 47 percent disagree. Thomas Jefferson said, "the tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." It is doubtful that he could have imagined the logistical difficulty of organizing an uprising in a country of 300 million people. What a future revolution might really look like can be found in a gem of a movie with Kirk Douglas and Burt Lancaster called "7 Days in May."

Excuse me is that a gun in your pocket or... Only 25 percent would feel more safe if their college classmates were "packing". Seventy percent of Americans would prefer to debate ideas without loaded guns in the room.

Twenty six percent of respondents think that countries now experiencing popular uprisings in the Middle East have a chance to become true democracies within 10 years. A more pessimistic (or perhaps realistic) 68 percent of American think that a more likely scenario will be overthrowing one dictator for another.

Thirty percent think that Justin Bieber will be in celebrity rehab when he's 30. Eighteen percent project that he'll be married living out of the limelight. Thirteen percent predict he will still be packing stadiums, 20 percent aren't sure and another 20 percent think he'll be fat and bald or a talk show host. Very few teenage heartthrobs retain their superstardom well into adulthood. When you think of that kind of talent, you think of Sinatra, Elvis or Michael Jackson. As Bieber says in his big hit; "Never say never."

Forty eight percent of Americans find that they are most productive at the workplace (why do you think they call it work?). Very few people claim to be productive elsewhere like for instance the shower (even though it can be good clean fun). A solid 37 percent of Americans think they are most productive at home. Hey, where's my "honey do" list?

This poll was conducted at the CBS News interviewing facility among a random sample of 984 adults nationwide, interviewed by telephone February 24-27, 2011. Phone numbers were dialed from random digit dial samples of both standard land-line and cell phones. The error due to sampling for results based on the entire sample could be plus or minus three percentage points. The error for subgroups is higher. This poll release conforms to the Standards of Disclosure of the National Council on Public Polls. Read more about this poll.