Rising Share of Americans See Conflict Between Rich and Poor
Jan 16, 2012
Although the Occupy Wall Street movement has dissipated and no longer occupies Wall Street, the issue of class conflict has captured a growing share of the American national consciousness.
A new Pew Research Centre survey has found that about two-thirds of the American public (66 percent) believes that there are “very strong” or “strong” conflicts between the rich and the poor – an increase of 19 percentage points since 2009.
Not only have the perceptions of class conflict grown more prevalent, but so too has the belief that these disputes are intense. According to the new survey, 30 percent of Americans say there are “very strong conflicts” between poor people and rich people. That is double the proportion that offered that view in July 2009 and the largest share expressing this opinion since the question was first asked in 1987.
As a result of the increasing resonance of this issue, conflicts between rich and poor now rank ahead of three other potential sources of group tension – between immigrants and the native born; between blacks and whites; and between young and old. At the time of the last study in 2009 more survey respondents said there were strong conflicts between immigrants and the native born than said the same about the rich and the poor.
According to the survey, virtually all major demographic groups now perceive significantly more class conflict than as recently as two years ago. And while blacks are still more likely than whites to see serious class conflicts, the share of whites who hold this view has increased by 22 percent – to 65 percent – since 2009.
The biggest increases in perceptions of class conflicts occurred among political liberals and Americans who say they are not affiliated with either major party. In each group the proportion who say there are major disagreements between rich and poor Americans increased by more than 20 percentage points since 2009.
Although it’s possible that these rapid changes in attitude over a relatively short period of time can be attributed to the attention the Occupy movement received in the media, it is also possible that the changes reflect a growing public awareness of underlying shifts in the distribution of wealth in American society. According to the most recent US Census Bureau numbers, the proportion of overall wealth held by the top 10 percent of the American population increased from 49 percent in 2005 to 56 percent in 2009.
The report can be accessed here.
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