So we needed a poll to tell us what we’re already experiencing in the parking lots and freeways of life? Are we too busy to be nice?

The Public Agenda Research Group conducted a new poll that found that rude behavior is increasing throughout the country. The poll found that boorish and selfish behavior had dramatically increased on highways and in stores, and 73 percent said that Americans treated each other with greater respect in the past. Humorist Bruce McCall had the following take on the results: “Despite Public Agenda’s findings, manners today resemble the Court of Versailles compared with earlier times. Americans have always been too busy to be nice. Until the age of Martha Stewart and Masterpiece Theatre arrived to disseminate a higher standard of politesse, America was an uncouth society indeed.” But as America is also obsessed with self-improvement, McCall offers some suggestions to reverse the rising tide: Shop at Wal-Mart instead of stores favored by the affluent, where you are almost certain to get a rude brush-off; buy your own SUV; slow way down, and do not watch programs such as “Crossfire” or other TV talk shows “if you plan to have a conversation with anyone in the next 24 hours.”

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