Why voters don’t care more about income inequality

[unhappycamper]

http://www.salon.com/2014/10/05/why_voters_dont_care_more_about_income_inequality_partner/



A new study suggests Americans vastly underestimate the current gap between the country's rich and poor

Why voters don’t care more about income inequality
David Sirota
Sunday, Oct 5, 2014 11:00 AM EST

If critics of income inequality are wondering why the growing gap between rich and poor hasn’t been a more potent political issue in the upcoming elections, a new study offers some answers: Americans grossly underestimate this inequality. That’s one of the key findings of a survey showing the gap between CEO and average worker pay in America is more than 10 times larger than the typical American perceives.

In the report, Harvard University and Chulalongkorn University researchers analyzed survey data from 40 countries about perceptions of pay gaps between rich and poor. In every country, respondents underestimated the size of the gap between CEO and average worker pay. In the United States, for example, the researchers found the median American respondent estimated that the ratio of CEO to worker income is about 30-to-1. In reality, the gap is more than 350-to-1.

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Similarly, Standard & Poor’s has released reports showing the widening gap between rich and poor threatens America’s overall economic growth and is exacerbating state budget crises. And a study published by the National Bureau of Economic Research finds that America’s higher rate of infant mortality than Europe “is driven almost exclusively by excess inequality in the United States.”

Despite all this, though, economic inequality remains a peripheral political issue. Why? Based on the data, it is not because the problem is insignificant — it is more likely because Americans misperceive just how unequal their country has become.