What’s Bugging America
A study by the highly regarded Pew Research Center provides insight into what is bugging Americans. Surprisingly it’s not the national debt, or immigration, which was the major issue in their last study done in 2009. In the Pew survey conducted in early December, income inequality leapt up about 50% from the 2009 study to be seen as America’s greatest source of tension. Two thirds of the respondents see the divide between the super rich and those on down the food chain as our major concern.
It gets more interesting when you look at the breakouts. As you might expect, the minorities, the poor, and the liberals are most likely to see inequality as the major cause of tension, but their scores were not up much from the 2009 study. The big jump came at the upper middle of the income ladder, 71% of those earning from $40,000 to $75,000 pointed to income inequality; that’s up more than 50% from 2009. Even the level of Republicans who see inequality as the number one issue is surprising, more than half, 55%.
More troubling, however, is the growing body of data indicating that opportunity to move up the ladder in the United States is in serious decline. The American Dream no longer tops the world. Canada and most western European nations now offer their citizens a better shot at that dream than we do. Among a number of studies one European study seems most comprehensive. Conducted by a group of scientists, it compares economic mobility across leading nations and we do not come off well. It shows that 40% of Americans born into the bottom 20% of our economy live out their lives there. Compare that to England at 30% and Denmark at 25%. Only 8% rise from the bottom fifth to the top fifth compared to 12% of the Brits and 14% of the Danes.
At the other end of the scale –the top of the economic pile– far more Americans born to wealth remain there than in other nations. Our absence of mobility is a threat to our nation. A threat seen not only by those on the left, but by leading right leaning players, Rick Santorum and Paul Ryan both expressed concern.
Economic inequality and economic mobility are linked at the hip. A tax code that favors the wealthy combined with a dramatic shift in taxing inequality have left those on the bottom and in the middle giving up a greater share of their income to support America. Billionaire Warren Buffett has been pointing to the flaws in our system for several years. We should all find it ludicrous –as he does– that he pays a lower share of his income than the lowest paid employee in his company.
We can’t keep the American Dream alive if we allow inequality to rule. We cannot ask the middle-class and those on the bottom of the economic ladder to devote a greater share of their income to support needed services than we require from the rich. It’s not fair; it’s ethically abhorrent.
A study by the highly regarded Pew Research Center provides insight into what is bugging Americans. Surprisingly it’s not the national debt, or immigration, which was the major issue in their last study done in 2009. In the Pew survey conducted in early December, income inequality leapt up about 50% from the 2009 study to be seen as America’s greatest source of tension. Two thirds of the respondents see the divide between the super rich and those on down the food chain as our major concern.
It gets more interesting when you look at the breakouts. As you might expect, the minorities, the poor, and the liberals are most likely to see inequality as the major cause of tension, but their scores were not up much from the 2009 study. The big jump came at the upper middle of the income ladder, 71% of those earning from $40,000 to $75,000 pointed to income inequality; that’s up more than 50% from 2009. Even the level of Republicans who see inequality as the number one issue is surprising, more than half, 55%.
More troubling, however, is the growing body of data indicating that opportunity to move up the ladder in the United States is in serious decline. The American Dream no longer tops the world. Canada and most western European nations now offer their citizens a better shot at that dream than we do. Among a number of studies one European study seems most comprehensive. Conducted by a group of scientists, it compares economic mobility across leading nations and we do not come off well. It shows that 40% of Americans born into the bottom 20% of our economy live out their lives there. Compare that to England at 30% and Denmark at 25%. Only 8% rise from the bottom fifth to the top fifth compared to 12% of the Brits and 14% of the Danes.
At the other end of the scale –the top of the economic pile– far more Americans born to wealth remain there than in other nations. Our absence of mobility is a threat to our nation. A threat seen not only by those on the left, but by leading right leaning players, Rick Santorum and Paul Ryan both expressed concern.
Economic inequality and economic mobility are linked at the hip. A tax code that favors the wealthy combined with a dramatic shift in taxing inequality have left those on the bottom and in the middle giving up a greater share of their income to support America. Billionaire Warren Buffett has been pointing to the flaws in our system for several years. We should all find it ludicrous –as he does– that he pays a lower share of his income than the lowest paid employee in his company.
We can’t keep the American Dream alive if we allow inequality to rule. We cannot ask the middle-class and those on the bottom of the economic ladder to devote a greater share of their income to support needed services than we require from the rich. It’s not fair; it’s ethically abhorrent.
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