This amazing graph is taken from The Rachel Maddow Show. It is based upon work from the two academics listed on the graph. The bottom chart is the distribution of income that Americans think would be right. The yellow line is the top 20% of earners, the orange line is the next 20%, and so on. The middle chart is the distribution of income that Americans think is what we have. And the top chart is the actual distribution of income. So Americans think income inequality is far better than it really is, but even with that distorted view, they would like the economy to be even more equitable.
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That segment on TRMS was very compelling, especially the graph shown here. What surprised me the most was the disparity between what Americans think the distribution of wealth is and what it actually is. It is apparent that, in general, people are still not fully comprehending just how high the levels of economic inequality are.
Thanks for posting this.
@Mack – I was very impressed by this. There are two parts to people’s perceptions being so far off. First, I think when inequality is talked about, it is usually the 1% that is presented which is something over 20%. Second, and more important, is that the society is stratified by income. If you make $50K per year, most of your friends make $50K per year and so you think most people do.
Interesting: I just looked for the percentage of all income the top 1% pay and most of what I found were conservative pages claiming that the lowest income earners pay no taxes. This, of course, is untrue. They pay no Federal Income taxes, but they pay a lot of taxes.
This bothers me, and I wrote about it recently: conservatives just don’t seem to care about the truth. I am very liberal. There are things I *want* to believe. But when my facts turn out to be wrong, I change my argument. I don’t just continue to spout the same falsehoods.
Are these people just our version of O’Brien? Facts don’t matter? Only power matters? 2 + 2 = 5 if the GOP says it does?
I find it very frustrating.
Frustrating isn’t strong enough a word for how it makes me feel. I’m like you: My views are based on reason and what real evidence tells me about reality. If evidence arises that challenges or contradicts my view, I also change my argument.
Conservatives *are* like O’Brien. They make their own truth to suit whatever agenda they’re trying to push. What really perplexes and angers me is how ordinary people who have conservative ideologies ignore factual evidence, vote against their own interests, and blame liberals for whatever problems arise. Even if every facet of the government is controlled by conservatives, it’s the liberal’s fault when things go bad. No amount of reason or evidence will convince them otherwise. It very much resembles religious zealotry.
I think the fact that Christian fundamentalist dogma is so intimately tied to conservative values and ideology is a large part of the reason that these people repeatedly vote against their own interests. Social issues take precedent over economic issues, and whatever happens to the economy, or these people’s economic standing, is just the free market at work. In fact, the conservative mind sees business as natural, as beyond politics. They completely deny the economic basis of social class.
"Thus the primary contradiction of the [Conservative] Backlash: it is a working-class movement that has done incalculable, historic harm to working-class people." -Thomas Frank
@Mack – You make some excellent points. May I suggest reading my "May Day Reading" and my "review" of *23 Things They Don’t Tell You About Capitalism* that I posted today.
Having said that, I don’t really blame the Christians for voting against their best interests, because in their minds their "spiritual" interests trump all else. However, I do blame them for voting for a party that claims to be on their side and yet never does anything for them. They voted for Bush in 2004 because he was anti-gay and they got: Social Security privatization!
In the May Day article I discuss specifically how working class men often vote against their economic interests for maintaining the illusion that they have power in there homes.
What I find most frustrating is that whenever I talk to conservatives, we mostly agree. But if Fox News is pushing an issue, it is hopeless. This is why every conservative I know now likes Bill Clinton while they hate Obama. It’s because they aren’t fed a daily diet of "Clinton is a socialist!" None of them seem to remember that the same things said about Obama were said about Clinton. And none of them seem to remember that Clinton’s healthcare reform was far more liberal. I guarantee that in 12 years, these same people will say, "You know, Obama was a good President, but this new guy…"
I really like Thomas Frank. The last chapter of *What’s the Matter with Kansas?* should be read by everyone.
I remember reading your "May Day Reading" article when you first posted it. *The "S" Word* and *The Reactionary Mind,* as well as *23 Things They Don’t Tell You About Capitalism,* are all on my growing list of books that I plan to buy.
As for conservative Christians voting for a party that claims to be on their side, yet never does anything for them, I think this quote from *What’s the Matter with Kansas?* says it well:
"The trick never ages: the illusion never wears off. Vote to stop abortion; receive a rollback in capital gains taxes. Vote to make our country strong again; receive deindustrialization. Vote to screw those politically correct college professors; receive electricity deregulation. Vote to get government off our backs; receive conglomeration and monopoly everywhere from media to meat-packing. Vote to stand tall against terrorists; receive social security privatization. Vote to strike a blow against elitism; receive a social order in which wealth is more concentrated than ever before in our lifetimes, in which workers have been stripped of power and CEOs are rewarded in a manner beyond imagining."
I really like Thomas Frank as well. *What’s the Matter with Kansas?* was a great read.
And I have noticed how conservatives now seem to like Clinton. It’s strange because, like you said, Clinton isn’t any more conservative than Obama. It baffled me when I first heard cons calling Obama a socialist. He’s actually a fairly conservative guy in my view, at least compared to Democrats in the past.
@Mack – That’s a good quote. I remember (I may have quoted it here) the part where he talks about the people getting angry about two female rockers kissing; that leads them to the polls to lower those rockers taxes. Showed them!
I remember when Clinton was president being confused about the claims that he was a socialist. To me, he was very much like Kennedy (but more conservative). I didn’t see why they all didn’t love him. Once Obama was elected it was deja vu all over again!
This all shows the folly of Democrats moving to the center. They move 2 steps to the middle, the Republicans move 50 steps to the right. Socialism may not be the right course for the US, but it must be pursued or we will be forever drifting toward fascism. I don’t say this lightly. The Republicans are already a proto-fascist party. I understand that Republicans have really not changed much since the 1960s. What has changed is how public they are about what they want.
And then there is that whole "weakness is strength" and "power for power’s sake" stuff. I wish I could get libertarians to see that they currently have far more to fear from corporations than they do from the government. And regardless, what they have to fear from the government is NOT using tax dollars to support public libraries.
Sigh.