What do Americans Really What?
This simple ~ 4 minute recording comes from Colin Gordon’s “Growing Apart A Political History of American Inequality” . Yves Smith at Naked Capitalism picks up on it also. It is a good read in its entirety. Economists View also has it on today’s links.
The video portion below gives a snap shot of what US citizens believe to be equitable in the split of wealth, what they believe to be reality, and compared to what is truly occuring in the US. Most miss the reality of the split and opt for something less going to the wealthy.
Scott Sumner made what may be a very good point on this, though unsupported by any facts or documentation: that the “ideal” wealth distribution is a fantasy land based on age cohorts alone. The old will always be much richer. I’d love to see some cogent data analysis on that.
Steve:
I would start here: http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2011/11/07/the-rising-age-gap-in-economic-well-being/5/