Public Divided On Wealth Redistribution

It's no secret that the distribution of wealth and income in the United States is way out of whack. The United States is fast approaching a third world plutocracy status where there are only two classes -- the super-rich ruling class and everyone else. The richest 20% of the population controls about 85% of the country's wealth, leaving the bottom 80% of the population to divide up 15% of the country's wealth.

The distribution of income is just as bad as the distribution of wealth. In 1960, the average CEO earned 42 times as much as the average worker. By 2007 the average CEO pay had climbed to 344 times as much as the average worker. And while the worker pay has been stagnant for many years, the CEO pay continues to rise at a spectacular rate.

And according to a recent Gallup Poll (taken April 7th through April 11th of 1,077 adults in the continental U.S. with a margin of error of 4 points) a clear majority of Americans are aware of this wealth disparity. The poll shows that 57% of the population thinks the country's wealth and income should be more evenly distributed, while only 35% thinks the current distribution is fair.

The rub comes in how to achieve a more even distribution of wealth and income. The easiest way to accomplish a redistribution of wealth is to tax the rich more heavily, but when that is suggested it only appeals to about half of the respondents (and just as many are opposed to that idea). The poll showed that 47% of the people would be in favor of heavier taxes on the rich but 49% would be opposed to that.

I think this comes from two ideas. The first is the old myth that anyone can get rich in America. It's not true, but a large segment of the population has bought into it (and this segment thinks that taxing the rich more would someday affect them). The truth is that only a small portion of the population will ever become rich, and those that do owe their country more for the opportunities they have been given.

But the main thing that keeps people from wanting to tax the rich heavier is the word "redistribution". The right-wing has propagandized that word to the extent that many people equate it as a synonym for "socialism". What people fail to realize is that wealth is being distributed and redistributed all the time in every kind of economic system.

In the right-wing Republican "trickle-down" system that this country has been following since the Reagan administration (and was accelerated during the Bush II administration), the wealth has been redistributed away from the middle and working classes and to the rich. And this redistribution of wealth is far more pernicious than the proposed redistribution from the rich to the middle and working classes. This trickle-down redistribution is the cause of both the Great Depression and the current Great Recession, and unless it is changed it will turn America into a banana republic (albeit a very large one).

As might be expected, different groups of people have a different view on taxing the rich more heavily to achieve a more equitable distribution of wealth and income. Here is the demographic breakdown according to the Gallup Poll:

SHOULD THE RICH BE MORE HEAVILY TAXED TO REDISTRIBUTE THE COUNTRY'S WEALTH?

Women
yes...............52%
no...............44%

Men
yes...............42%
no...............54%

Whites
yes...............41%
no...............56%

Nonwhites
yes...............64%
no...............33%

Less than $30,000
yes...............63%
no...............32%

$30,000 to $74,999
yes...............51%
no...............47%

Over $70,000
yes...............31%
no...............67%

Republicans
yes...............28%
no...............69%

Independents
yes...............43%
no...............53%

Democrats
yes...............71%
no...............26%