A new Pew Research poll shows that the cultural battle between rich and poor is as fierce as ever.
Fully 66% of Americans believe there are “strong” or “very strong” conflicts between rich and poor in the U.S. That’s way up from 47% in 2009.
The rich-poor conflict now eclipses perceived conflicts over immigration. The poll found that 62% of respondents believed there was a strong conflict between immigrants and native-born Americans – less than the 66% for rich-poor.
What’s more, Americans remain highly skeptical of the way the rich in America get rich. According to the poll, 46% of respondents believe the wealthy got wealthy “because they were born with money or they knew the right people.”
Only 43% of Americans believe that “hard work, ambition or education” are the reasons the rich got rich.
Of course, these questions could have been phrased more precisely. Getting rich through an inheritance is very different from getting rich by making the right connections and relationships in life (clearly a part of any rich-person’s journey). They should be separated as wealth causes.
And the numbers are about the same as they were in 2009, meaning that while class-warfare may be at an all-time high, Americans’ actual perceptions of the rich haven’t changed much.
Yet their opinions are still fairly negative, since more Americans believe the rich owe their fortunes to their parents or clubby social circles rather than hard work, ambition or education. This skeptical view is most pronounced among the young, or those between the ages of 18 and 34.
Republicans believe in the “hard work” path more than Democrats (their responses are almost mirror opposites). And men generally fall into the “hard work” camp more than women.
The results highlight just how conflicted Americans are about the rich. Most studies show that more than two-thirds of today’s millionaires made it themselves, rather than from inheritance. And clearly education and skills matter in making a fortune in the knowledge economy.
Yet the polls suggests that for many Americans, the rich form a self-preserving “club” that’s largely closed to the rest of us — whether it’s because of family background or exclusive networks. That view is exactly what Mitt Romney will have to battle in the coming elections.
How do you think the rich got rich? Hard work, education and ambition, or inheritance and connections?