Subscribe to Receive the Daily Report

Monday, August 10th, 2015

Research finds most rich people aren’t worried about wealth inequality because practically everyone they know is rich, too

Author:     Libby Kane
Source:     Business Insider
Publication Date:     Aug. 4, 2015, 7:29 PM
Link: Research finds most rich people aren’t worried about wealth inequality because practically everyone they know is rich, too
Stephan:   This article deals with what I think is one of the central problems with wealth inequity at the level it exists in the U.S. We now have population portions that simply live in different worlds and can no longer really meaningfully communicate. A democracy cannot long endure under those conditions, and our's is on it death bed.
Wealthy people "subjectively experience" living in a different society. Credit: Business Insider

Wealthy people “subjectively experience” living in a different society.
Credit: Business Insider

The US is one of the most unequal developed countries in the world.

President Obama has called it “the defining challenge of our time,” and the World Economic Forum named income inequality the top economic trend to watch for 2015.

Some people at the upper end of the spectrum, however, don’t see the problem.

For a study published last month in Psychological Science, University of Kent postgraduate researcher Rael Dawtry commissioned over 600 US adults to take online surveys for two separate studies to gauge their impressions of income distribution among their social circle and among the larger US population. In one study, they estimated the percentage of people who fell into 11 different income bands, and in the other, they estimated the average income of people in each quintile.

Then, they were asked to share their thoughts on the fairness of income distribution in the US and how satisfied they were with that distribution. They […]

Read the Full Article