A recent study shows that U.S. conservatives and liberals actually aren’t far apart in how they think wealth should be spread. And both believe it’s skewed a bit too much toward the “haves,” leaving the “have nots” in something of a bind. So we’re in agreement.
The bad news is that both sides terribly underestimate just how skewed things actually are, as demonstrated in this graph.
To summarize, both conservatives and liberals believe the richest 20 percent of the population should own about 30-35 percent of the wealth. Both sides believe that the richest currently own about 60 percent. But in truth, the richest own roughly 85 percent, leaving the other 80 percent to share a mere 15 percent of the wealth.
Today’s blog entry is brought to you by the word “plutocracy.”
—Les
Photo by Wonderlane