Inequality in US – Why voters don’t demand income redistribution

John Steinbeck explained that the reason so many of this country’s working- and middle-class vote against their own economic interests is that “Americans are temporarily embarrassed millionaires in waiting.” Researchers at the University of Hannover in Germany have now released data that somewhat supports Steinbeck’s quip. The study measured actual income inequality and upward mobility versus perceived income inequality and upward mobility in a number of countries. The results are conclusive: U.S. voters don’t demand income redistribution, from the rich to the lower economic classes, because they don’t grasp how severe inequality actually is.

In the U.S., a child born in the top 20 percent economically has a 2-in-3 chance of staying at or near the top, whereas a child born in the bottom 20 percent has a less than 1-in-20 shot at making it to the top, making the U.S. one of the least upwardly mobile nations in the developed world. Our levels of income inequality rank near countries like Jamaica and Argentina, rather than like countries like Canada and Germany, but American voters, in large, believe America is just doing fine.

The perception-reality gap is so vast that Americans believe those in the middle of the income distribution earn only 4 percent less than the national average. In reality, Americans in the middle earn 16 percent less.

The research demonstrates that in those countries where people believe inequality is worse, governments tend to redistribute more. In other words, American voters are their own worst enemies.

“If citizen-voters see an issue, politics has to respond—even if there is no issue,” the researchers concluded. “Conversely, if a real problem is not salient with voters, it will probably not be pursued forcefully.”

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor. Read the whole story at America’s Inequality Nightmare | Alternet.