Homeless person
Americans Continue to Say U.S. Wealth Distribution Is Unfair
- 63% of Americans say money and wealth distribution is unfair
- These attitudes are substantially unchanged over past 30 years
- Slight majority of 52% favor heavy taxes on rich as fix
PRINCETON, N.J. — Despite the growing focus on inequality in recent years, the 63% of Americans who say that money and wealth should be more evenly distributed among a larger percentage of the people is almost the same as the 60% who said this in 1984.
Americans’ agreement that money and wealth need to be more evenly distributed reached a high point of 68% in April 2008, in the last year of the George W. Bush administration, and just before the full effects of the Great Recession began to take hold. Americans became slightly less likely to agree with the idea later that year and in surveys conducted in 2009, 2011 and 2013. This year’s increase to 63% is close to the average of 62% agreement across the 13 times Gallup has asked the question since 1984. The latest data are from Gallup’s April 9-12 Economy and Personal Finance survey. [Read more]
