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Why Do America's Poor Oppose a Redistribution of Wealth?
The Atlantic ^ | September 11, 2015 | GILLIAN B. WHITE

Posted on 09/11/2015 11:50:17 AM PDT by reaganaut1

With all the outrage about growing economic inequality one might think that there’d also be growing support for wealth redistribution—policies that include hiking taxes for the wealthy or increasing aid to the poor. But a new working paper from NBER suggests that by and large, America’s desire to see wealth spread around more evenly hasn’t really increased that much at all in the past 30 years. And in fact members of some of the most vulnerable economic groups are actually less supportive of efforts that would boost the economic standing of the less well-off than they once were.

The topic of economic inequality has been inescapable in recent years. It’s become a talking point for everyone from famed economists to President Obama. And with good reason: The gap between the nation’s wealthiest and everyone else has been growing. And in the wake of an economic crisis that left scores of Americans unemployed and vastly devalued their largest assets, the rapid recovery of the wealthy as so many continue to struggle can feel painfully unfair.

In the face of such division, Vivekinan Ashok and Ebonya Washington of Yale University and Ilyana Kuziemko of Princeton, the authors of the NBER study, attempted to figure out if a widening economic gap had caused Americans to become more supportive of efforts to create a more equal distribution of wealth in the country. They plotted out how Americans responded to questions about wealth redistribution based on age, gender, and race over the past few decades. Though inequality had grown, Americans hadn’t become any more supportive of using redistribution to fix the problem. For those over the age of 65, support for redistribution has actually waned as inequality has risen.

(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS:
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The abstract of the NBER paper, "Support for Redistribution in an Age of Rising Inequality: New Stylized Facts and Some Tentative Explanations", is here.
1 posted on 09/11/2015 11:50:17 AM PDT by reaganaut1
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To: reaganaut1

Many in America, poor and otherwise, do favor redistributing wealth. That’s why they vote Democrat.


2 posted on 09/11/2015 11:52:07 AM PDT by Trapped Behind Enemy Lines
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To: reaganaut1

They know it would be quickly redistributed away from them, largely due to their own decisions.....


3 posted on 09/11/2015 11:54:37 AM PDT by Paladin2 (Ive given up on aphostrophys and spell chek on my current devices...one uses Brit spel now.)
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To: reaganaut1

Because they know it would be bad for them.


4 posted on 09/11/2015 11:55:51 AM PDT by TBP (Obama lies, Granny dies.)
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To: reaganaut1

Because the poor ASPIRE to be affluent one day!


5 posted on 09/11/2015 11:56:09 AM PDT by 2harddrive
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To: Trapped Behind Enemy Lines

They don’t want a one time redistribution, just a weekly distribution - like they already have.


6 posted on 09/11/2015 11:56:29 AM PDT by Paladin2 (Ive given up on aphostrophys and spell chek on my current devices...one uses Brit spel now.)
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To: Paladin2

I believe you have nailed it!


7 posted on 09/11/2015 11:57:12 AM PDT by nascarnation (Impeach, convict, deport)
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To: reaganaut1

Because “redistribution” is such a big word?


8 posted on 09/11/2015 11:57:45 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
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To: reaganaut1

Maybe they hope to be rich some day?

If you have a good year, and you make a $million, you would think you would be set for life (or at least a few years)

But at 90% tax rate, the GOVERNMENT gets most of that, and next year you have to go right back to work, hoping you come up with ANOTHER Million dollar idea.


9 posted on 09/11/2015 11:58:39 AM PDT by Mr. K (If it is HilLIARy -vs- Jeb! then I am writing-in Palin/Cruz)
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To: reaganaut1

The elites are trying everything they can think of to dilute the productive voters in our country to a minority.


10 posted on 09/11/2015 11:58:44 AM PDT by Steely Tom (Vote GOP: A Slower Handbasket)
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To: reaganaut1

Ask the question again, this time making it clear who’s wealth is being distributed.


11 posted on 09/11/2015 11:59:03 AM PDT by skeeter
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To: reaganaut1

Who says the poor don’t redistribute from others to themselves. There is EBT, WIC, Welfare, falsified disability claims, falsified tax returns using the child credit.
They have free insurance through Obamacare where the middle class gets a 200% or more bump in prices to pay for them.
There is government overpaid employment and retirement on the taxpayer, another welfare of sorts.

It’s all distribution.


12 posted on 09/11/2015 11:59:05 AM PDT by A CA Guy ( God Bless America, God Bless and keep safe our fighting men and women.)
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To: A CA Guy

It’s the old Marxist “false consciousness” spiel again.


13 posted on 09/11/2015 12:01:00 PM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
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To: reaganaut1

What “ IS “ wealth?..

I have little money but am not POOR..
So wealth is not money?

I am RICH just by being an American.....

Most of the world does not have clean running water at their finger tips..
I can take a Hot bath/shower whenever I want to.. in water clean enough to drink..
I can have all the FOOD I need or want..
Clothing is not an issue thrift stores have clothing for pennies..
Having a residence is not a problem..
Health Care is available even for the poor.. ALWAYS WAS..

The internet is extremely common even for the poor..
I can call literally anyone from a cellphone..
Even our pets have it better than most people in the world..

Americans whining about poverty is OBSCENE.. UNGratiful.. WRONG..
AND SHOULD BE DEPORTED.. forced to leave.. with NO American riches..
Only with the clothing on their BACKS... and cannot come back for 10 years.. if at all..


14 posted on 09/11/2015 12:04:14 PM PDT by hosepipe (This propaganda has been edited (specifically) to include some fully orbed hyperbole..)
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To: hosepipe
What “ IS “ wealth?..

I have little money but am not POOR..
So wealth is not money?

I am RICH just by being an American.....

Most of the world does not have clean running water at their finger tips..
I can take a Hot bath/shower whenever I want to.. in water clean enough to drink..
I can have all the FOOD I need or want..
Clothing is not an issue thrift stores have clothing for pennies..
Having a residence is not a problem..
Health Care is available even for the poor.. ALWAYS WAS..

The internet is extremely common even for the poor..
I can call literally anyone from a cellphone..
Even our pets have it better than most people in the world..

Americans whining about poverty is OBSCENE.. UNGratiful.. WRONG..
AND SHOULD BE DEPORTED.. forced to leave.. with NO American riches..
Only with the clothing on their BACKS... and cannot come back for 10 years.. if at all..


What's the stat, 1/2 of the world lives on less than $2 per day? They have as strong a case to the property of the American poor as the American poor have to the wealthy.

15 posted on 09/11/2015 12:14:08 PM PDT by fungoking (Tis a pleasure to live in the Ozarks)
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To: reaganaut1

“Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat, but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires”

Often attributed to John Steinbeck


16 posted on 09/11/2015 12:17:08 PM PDT by RedStateRocker (Nuke Mecca, deport all illegal aliens, abolish the IRS, DEA and ATF.)
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To: reaganaut1

Poor people do not provide jobs and even the poor understand that and they are smart enough understand that the more economic freedom for the wealthy will lead to more economic stability for the poor.


17 posted on 09/11/2015 12:18:28 PM PDT by Timpanagos1
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To: reaganaut1
well see there are two types of wealth redistribution schemes

1. The two-party way ....

A poor person works for a rich person....

the rich person pays the poor person.....

that's a straight two party redistribution of wealth ....

from the rich man to the poor man.....

oddly the left does not call that wealth redistribution...

they call that oppression

2. The three party way with the middlemen controlling everything...

The left redistribution is a 3 party system ....with the left acting as the middleman in between the poor and rich....

the left takes the money from the rich man saying they will give it to the poor man .....

but the left middle man usually keeps about 80 to 90 percent of what they take for themselves...

screwing both the rich and the poor ....

and on top of taking the money from the rich and only giving scraps of it to the poor ....

the left also takes power from both the rich and the poor...

18 posted on 09/11/2015 12:43:14 PM PDT by tophat9000 (King G(OP)eorge III has no idea why the Americans Patriots are in rebellion... teach him why)
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To: reaganaut1

There seems to be a natural redistribution of wealth (not always true) as described by Otto von Bismarck:
“The first generation earns the money, the second administrates the money, the third studies history of art and the fourth sinks into poverty totally.”


19 posted on 09/11/2015 12:46:33 PM PDT by Hiddigeigei ("Talk sense to a fool and he calls you foolish," said Dionysus - Euripides)
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To: Hiddigeigei

So Charlotte Hubbell-Clinton-Mezvinsky’s kid is gonna be a pauper, LOL.


20 posted on 09/11/2015 12:50:45 PM PDT by nascarnation (Impeach, convict, deport)
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