There's a lot of talk nowadays about "distribution of wealth" and even more controversially, "redistribution of wealth." The phrase "redistribution of wealth" is used as ammo by both sides of the political spectrum, whether it's Republicans accusing Obama and Democrats of being Socialists that want to take too much money away from hardworking Americans (3/12 blog post: Obama hates hardworking Americans), or Democrats accusing Republicans of wanting to take money from hardworking Americans and give them to corporations (3/11 blog post attacking Rep Joe Barton).
But let's move away from "redistribution" for a minute, and focus on "distribution." Distribution of wealth simply refers to how wealth is divided amongst groups in a society. The rhetoric of Republicans and Democrats seems to suggest that Americans have a pretty varied view of how wealth is divided in society. So what is the reality of wealth distribution in America? And how do the different parties view it?
Michael Norton of Harvard Business School and Dan Ariely of Duke University conducted a survey in 2005 of over 5500 Americans, chosen at random, and asked them how they viewed the distribution of wealth in America and what they would prefer it to be. The data is a few years old, but I found the results to be rather interesting.
And how do Republicans and Democrats differ? Of particular interest in the following graph is a comparison among "Actual" distribution, "Estimated (Bush Voters)" distribution, "Estimated (Kerry Voters)" distribution, "Ideal (Bush Voters)" distribution, and "Ideal (Kerry Voters)" distribution. To make it a bit easier to see, I created a "spliced" graph that follows the graph from the study.
(source: Nolton & Airely, 2010)
What is the distribution of wealth today? Because it takes time to collect and analyze data, the current data is a few years out of date. It is projected, however, that the current distribution of wealth is more unequal today than it was when this study was conducted in 2005 (Wolff, 2010)
So what does all this mean? Well, I think these findings lead to a couple of interesting conclusions. First, the American public greatly underestimates the inequality of wealth distribution in America. And second, Republican and Democratic voters do not differ substantially in how they believe wealth ought to be distributed. Perhaps, then, we are not as divided as we think we are. Idealistic, I know. Particularly because even if we agree on what ought to be, our opinions on how to get there is likely where we all have different ideas.
Additional References: (Motherjones.com), (Domhoff, 2011), (Garthright Blog)
