{"id":14393,"date":"2014-04-28T12:30:11","date_gmt":"2014-04-28T17:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/%year%\/%monthnum%\/%day%\/americans-agree-inequality-has-grown-but-dont-agree-on-why\/"},"modified":"2024-04-14T03:22:24","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T08:22:24","slug":"americans-agree-inequality-has-grown-but-dont-agree-on-why","status":"publish","type":"short-read","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2014\/04\/28\/americans-agree-inequality-has-grown-but-dont-agree-on-why\/","title":{"rendered":"Americans agree inequality has grown, but don\u2019t agree on why"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/assets.pewresearch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2014\/04\/FT_14.04.28_ReasonsforInequality.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-258506\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.pewresearch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2014\/04\/FT_14.04.28_ReasonsforInequality.png\" alt=\"Chart listing some of the reasons Americans give for economic inequality\" ><\/a><\/figure>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Issues of economic inequality (however one <a href=\"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2013\/12\/18\/the-many-ways-to-measure-economic-inequality\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">defines<\/a>\u00a0it) are a part of the public discussion in a way they haven&#8217;t been for\u00a0a long time, driven both by economists such as <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nybooks.com\/articles\/archives\/2014\/may\/08\/thomas-piketty-new-gilded-age\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Thomas Piketty<\/a> and people&#8217;s own experiences since the 2007-09 global financial panic. Americans have few doubts that inequality has grown: In a Pew Research Center <a href=\"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/politics\/2014\/01\/23\/most-see-inequality-growing-but-partisans-differ-over-solutions\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">survey from January<\/a>, about two-thirds of respondents (65%) said the gap between the rich and everyone else has increased over the past decade, versus just 8% who said it&#8217;s decreased.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But ask people\u00a0<em>why<\/em> the gap has grown, and their answers are all over the place.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Among\u00a0people who said the gap between the rich and everyone else has grown, we asked an &#8220;open-ended question&#8221; &#8212; what, in their own words, the main reason was. About a fifth (20%) said tax loopholes (or, more generally, tax laws\u00a0skewed\u00a0to favor the rich) were the main reason. Ten percent\u00a0pinned the blame on Congress or government policies more broadly; about as many (9%) cited the lackluster job market, while 6% named corporations or business executives.<!--more--><\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But well over half of the people who saw a widening gap cited\u00a0a host of other reasons, among them (in no particular order): Obama and Democrats, Bush and Republicans, the education system, the capitalist system, the stock market,\u00a0banks, lobbyists, the strong\/weak work ethic of the rich\/poor,\u00a0too much public\u00a0assistance, not enough public assistance, over-regulation, under-regulation, the rich having more power and opportunity, the rich not spending enough, and simply\u00a0&#8220;a lot of greedy people out there.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Here&#8217;s a sampling of the comments our respondents made:<\/p>\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>&#8220;I think the wealthy have political clout that protects them from fair taxation.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Congress favors laws that help them accumulate wealth. Congress is bought by money.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Bringing in immigration has a lot to do with it.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;The internet has made a lot of people richer.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Greedy people in positions such as banking.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Economics drilled our manufacturing jobs offshore. The middle class will continue to shrink until we can get some of those jobs back in the country.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;It takes money to make money, and they have the money to make it.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Within the welter of responses, there were some clear partisan distinctions. More than a quarter (26%) of self-identified Democrats and those who lean Democratic cited the tax system as a main reason for the gap. Just 14% of self-identified Republicans and those who lean Republican said the same. Among self-identified liberal Democrats, roughly a third (32%) cited taxes. By contrast, Republicans and Republican-leaning independents were more likely (14%) to mention Congress or government policies than Democrats (8%). \u00a0About one-in-ten (9%) Republicans and GOP-leaning independents cited poor people&#8217;s work ethic and government assistance programs, compared with less than 1% of Democrats who said that.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/assets.pewresearch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/legacy-questionnaires\/4-28-14%20Inequality%20Topline.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">See the questionnaire results and survey methodology here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Two-thirds of Americans say the gap between the rich and everyone else has increased, but when asked why they cite dozens of different reasons.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":145,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"sub_headline":null,"sub_title":"","_prc_public_revisions":[],"_ppp_expiration_hours":0,"_ppp_enabled":false,"ai_generated_summary":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"relatedPosts":[],"datacite_doi":"","datacite_doi_citation":"","_prc_seo_qr_attachment_id":0,"spoken_article_player_enabled":true,"displayBylines":true,"footnotes":"","prc_watchers":[],"_prc_fork_parent":0,"_prc_fork_status":"","_prc_active_fork":0},"categories":[232,239],"bylines":[842],"collection":[],"datasets":[],"_post_visibility":[],"formats":[467],"_fund_pool":[],"languages":[],"regions-countries":[515],"research-teams":[520],"workflow-status":[],"class_list":["post-14393","short-read","type-short-read","status-publish","hentry","category-economic-conditions","category-economic-inequality","bylines-drew-desilver","formats-short-read","regions-countries-united-states","research-teams-politics"],"label":"Short 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