Who knew?

From the StarTribune:

The 1990s saw historic declines in welfare use and remarkable reductions in other social pathologies, but you would never know it from asking the man or woman on the street.

Some 74 percent of respondents in a recent survey said that the number of children on welfare is going up, even though the nation's welfare caseloads dropped by half during the 1990s.

Teen crime is at its lowest level in more than 25 years -- but two-thirds of people in the survey said teen crime rates are rising.

Teen birth rates have dropped sharply since 1991, but three-quarters of the respondents said the trend is steady or rising.

The survey was conducted by the Annie E. Casey Foundation and Child Trends, a Washington, D.C., research organization.