A few hours ago, the UN's Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) issued the encouraging news that Latin America is getting more middle class. The agency's researchers found that the continent has fewer people in poverty today than at any point in the last three decades. That's according to the agency's annual study, "Social Panorama of Latin America." The whole report is available as a free download here. The evidence points to one main factor, apparently: better jobs. A million fewer people are in poverty in Latin America than were last year, and that is because ... Read More
Both 1 Percent and 47 Percent Skew Blue
November 7, 2012 • By • Leave a Comment
What do the 1 percent and the 47 percent have in common? They both went for Obama. With class a recurring theme in the thankfully concluded U.S. presidential election, CNBC.com’s Paul Toscano notes that Barack Obama won eight of the 10 wealthiest counties (based on average household income) in the nation. Plus, his margin of victory was greater in those counties than his 50-to-48-percent national margin. All 10 counties were in states that Obama won, although Colorado (Pitkin County) and Virginia (Fairfax and Loudon counties) were a little tighter than New York (Westchester), ... Read More
A Simple Way to Get Conservatives to Support Higher Taxes on the Rich
October 30, 2012 • By • Leave a Comment
It is a fundamental fault line of contemporary American politics: Republicans adamantly oppose higher taxes on the wealthy, while Democrats consider such taxes a moral and fiscal imperative. This disagreement plays a central role in the election campaign, and it threatens to derail any deal to cut the deficit. But conservative opinion on this issue may be more malleable than anyone realizes. Newly published research suggests that, for those on the right, support for this specific form of wealth redistribution depends on how the issue is framed. Writing in the journal Psychological ... Read More
You Choose, They Lose: The Psychology of Income Inequality
June 20, 2012 • By • Leave a Comment
Paper or plastic? PC or Mac? Do you want fries with that? American culture is all about making choices. And two scholars report that mulling over our options affects how we think about economic inequality. “When the concept of choice was highlighted,” they write, “people (taking part in a series of experiments) were less disturbed by statistics demonstrating wealth inequality, less likely to believe that societal factors contribute to the success of the wealthy, less willing to endorse redistributing educational resources more equally between the rich and the poor, and less willing to ... Read More
