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Today's Top News
Poll: Majorities Say Income Gap Too Wide
Income differences in the U.S. are too stark, and the government should provide jobs and training for those having a tough time, according to majorities in a national poll released Thursday.
About seven in 10 said discrepancies between income levels are too large, a sentiment voiced by nearly two-thirds of those from households earning at least $80,000 a year, the survey said. Three-fourths of people earning less than $80,000 agreed.
Eight in 10 said the gap between the rich and the middle class has worsened over the last 25 years, said the survey by the University of Connecticut's Center for Survey Research and Analysis.
The poll comes in the early stages of a 2008 presidential campaign in which several Democratic candidates have discussed a widening distance between the country's rich and poor.
Former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards has made "two Americas" one of his favorite themes. Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Barack Obama of Illinois have also touched on the topic.
In the survey, 58 percent said large pay differences help get people to work harder. Yet 61 percent said such discrepancies are not needed for the country to prosper.
Two-thirds said the government should make sure there is a job for everyone who wants one. Small majorities said it should provide jobs for people who can't find private employment, increase federal training programs and redistribute money with high taxes on the wealthy.
Even so, nearly two-thirds said it is not the government's responsibility to ease income differences.
The survey was conducted from June 18 to July 2 and involved telephone interviews with 500 adults nationally. It has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.
Copyright © 2007 The Associated Press.
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6 Comments so far
Show AllIn the end, the wars we foment and the Constitution we shred will matter less than the "bottom line" to the American voter. People will continue to vote their pocketbooks. The "good" news is that Americans are beginning to wake up as their earning power and standard of living takes a nose dive. I hope we can make a lasting change across this land, although our motivation to do so is subject to shortened collective memory and a national case of Attention Deficit Disorder.
It is the responsibility of the government to enact living wage laws like Dennis has stated his intention to do. There is no good reason to have gaps in income and wealth; it doesn't really benefit anyone!
http://www.dreamingearth.net
The pendulum is swinging folks. Let's not drop the ball here. The more people on our side the better.
Americans are by and large progressives. This article helps prove it. So much for us being a bunch of cavemen.
Most voters do not understand the impact of government policy on their ability to earn a wage in our country. For the past thirty years our government has implemented policy that effectively redistributes income from the bottom to the top of the earnings scale. Many different mechanisms are used to accomplish this redistribution of income and two examples are readily apparent, immigration and our health care system.
An excellent read on the distortion of economic policy that explains the policy mechanisms that our government uses to redistribute income from the bottom to the top is the subject of Dean Baker's "The Conservative Nanny State" and may be downloaded at www.cepr.org (The Center for Economic Policy and Research.
They say we wish to redistribute income from the top to the bottom. Damn straight! They already redistribute wealth, but from the bottom to the top. It's the scheme of Reaganomics; since the 80's, economic policy has meant basically, rich people and corporations should not have to pay taxes. Let everyone at the bottom pay up. The Tax Reform Act of 1986 dismantled the middle class by pushing most to the bottom. Wages have declined and corporate profits have exploded ever since. The minimum wage is crap; it is not adjusted to inflation, so it sinks every year. Living wages are what we should be agitating for. Dennis Kucinich is on top of that.
And not to mention the awfully expensive healthcare system. That is pushing families to the bottom as well (please see Sicko!). There really is NO middle class anymore; there's only the rich and everyone else. Inequality is THAT stark and people better start caring.
Drastic changes are needed to ensure equality and fairness. And I'm sorry but big changes come from fighters like Dennis Kucinich, not corporate-sponsored candidates like Hillary.
Shame on those who hoard far more than they can use. We live on a planet with limited resources, there's plenty for everyone, but when some people start hoarding and wasting more than their fair share, it screws things up for everyone else.
Believe it or not, we're slowly evolving towards a time when there will be no money, nor will there be rich and poor people. Everyone will have plenty. A time of peace far beyond any experienced thus far. The future for humanity is far brighter than our most astute futurists imagine.
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"...mankind [will advance] into a civilization and a state of consciousness in which right human relations and worldwide cooperation for the good of all will be the
universal keynote." The Tibetan
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"He shall proclaim the norm, lovely in its beginning, lovely in its middle, and lovely in the end thereof."
Gautama Buddha