The public is clear: solve inequality by taxing the obscenely rich
by David Atkins
America is often described as a divided nation, and in many ways we are. A person from suburban Kentucky and an urbanite in California don’t see eye to eye on most issues.
But when it comes fixing the unfair rewards of our economic system, Americans unequivocally agree on a few things. Among them are:
1. Taxing the rich won’t hurt the economy. Pundits like to pretend that the nation is evenly divided between demand-side and supply-side thinking on economics. That’s not actually true. An overwhelming majority of Americans are clearly Keynesians who believe in progressive taxation. A recent Pew poll asked:
“In your view, what would do more to reduce poverty: raising taxes on wealthy people and corporations in order to expand programs for the poor, OR, lowering taxes on wealthy people and corporations in order to encourage more investment and economic growth?”
54% said that raising taxes would help, only 35% said lowering them would, and 11% were unsure. Supply-siders are a rump minority.
2. Even a sizable number of Republicans think economic rewards should be distributed more fairly. A recent CBS News poll asked:
“Do you feel that the distribution of money and wealth in this country is fair, or do you feel that the money and wealth in this country should be more evenly distributed among more people?”
While 60% of Americans overall said it should be more even, so did many Republicans–34% of them, in fact.
3. Almost half of Americans don’t think it’s possible people to get ahead through their own effort. The question was asked this way:
“Which comes closer to your view? In today’s economy, everyone has a fair chance to get ahead in the long run. OR, In today’s economy, it’s mainly just a few people at the top who have a chance to get ahead.”
Only 52% of Americans said that everyone has a fair chance to get ahead.
4. Most Americans feel the economic system unfairly favors the wealthy. 60% of them, in fact.
The devil is in the details, of course: there are a lot of voters who interpret the question of hand-outs versus hand-ups differently based on their experiences or prejudices.
But there’s little doubt that people believe the American dream is dying, that inequality is a problem, that it’s getting worse, and that taxing the obscenely wealthy is the right way to fix it. Even a sizable chunk of Republicans agree.
.