Class War?: What Americans Really Think about Economic Inequality
3/5
()
About this ebook
Recent battles in Washington over how to fix America’s fiscal failures strengthened the widespread impression that economic issues sharply divide average citizens. Indeed, many commentators split Americans into two opposing groups: uncompromising supporters of unfettered free markets and advocates for government solutions to economic problems. But such dichotomies, Benjamin Page and Lawrence Jacobs contend, ring false. In Class War? they present compelling evidence that most Americans favor free enterprise and practical government programs to distribute wealth more equitably.
At every income level and in both major political parties, majorities embrace conservative egalitarianism—a philosophy that prizes individualism and self-reliance as well as public intervention to help Americans pursue these ideals on a level playing field. Drawing on hundreds of opinion studies spanning more than seventy years, including a new comprehensive survey, Page and Jacobs reveal that this worldview translates to broad support for policies aimed at narrowing the gap between rich and poor and creating genuine opportunity for all. They find, for example, that across economic, geographical, and ideological lines, most Americans support higher minimum wages, improved public education, wider access to universal health insurance coverage, and the use of tax dollars to fund these programs.
In this surprising and heartening assessment, Page and Jacobs provide our new administration with a popular mandate to combat the economic inequity that plagues our nation.
Benjamin I. Page
Enter the Author Bio(s) here.
Read more from Benjamin I. Page
Democracy in America?: What Has Gone Wrong and What We Can Do About It Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Billionaires and Stealth Politics Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Rational Public: Fifty Years of Trends in Americans' Policy Preferences Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Foreign Policy Disconnect: What Americans Want from Our Leaders but Don't Get Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWho Gets What from Government Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Living with the Dragon: How the American Public Views the Rise of China Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to Class War?
Related ebooks
Debacle: Obama's War on Jobs and Growth and What We Can Do Now to Regain Our Future Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTax and Spend: The Welfare State, Tax Politics, and the Limits of American Liberalism Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDemocracy Declined: The Failed Politics of Consumer Financial Protection Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAmerica's Poor and the Great Recession Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe State of Working America Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Growth Deficit Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Power of Money: How Ideas about Money Shaped the Modern World Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Economists' Voice 2.0: The Financial Crisis, Health Care Reform, and More Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNew York City Mutual Savings Banks, 1819-1861 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHow Progressive Cities Fight Innovation Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsChanging Inequality Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Economic Development for the Team Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEnd of The Good Life: How the Financial Crisis Threatens a New Lost Generation--and What We Can Do About It Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Taxing Women Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Obligation Mosaic: Race and Social Norms in US Political Participation Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Nobel Factor: The Prize in Economics, Social Democracy, and the Market Turn Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Source of the River: The Social Origins of Freshmen at America's Selective Colleges and Universities Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Structure of Policy Change Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Not-So-Special Interests: Interest Groups, Public Representation, and American Governance Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEnron: The Rise and Fall Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Politics and Economics in the Eighties Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe One-Way Street of Integration: Fair Housing and the Pursuit of Racial Justice in American Cities Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTax Policy and the Economy, Volume 36 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Keynes Solution: The Path to Global Economic Prosperity Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBeyond the Crash: Overcoming the First Crisis of Globalization Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Beyond Mechanical Markets: Asset Price Swings, Risk, and the Role of the State Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5The Future of the Dollar Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Legacy of Liberty: The Founders' Vision for the Acton Institute Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGood Enough for Government Work: The Public Reputation Crisis in America (And What We Can Do to Fix It) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Beltway Beast: Stealing from Future Generations and Destroying the Middle Class Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Politics For You
The Devil's Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America's Secret Government Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Republic by Plato Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5On Palestine Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Son of Hamas: A Gripping Account of Terror, Betrayal, Political Intrigue, and Unthinkable Choices Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fear: Trump in the White House Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Real Anthony Fauci: Bill Gates, Big Pharma, and the Global War on Democracy and Public Health Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The End of the Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Madness of Crowds: Gender, Race and Identity Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Gulag Archipelago [Volume 1]: An Experiment in Literary Investigation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Great Reset: And the War for the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Capitalism and Freedom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Freedom Is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Quest for Cosmic Justice Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The January 6th Report Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The U.S. Constitution with The Declaration of Independence and The Articles of Confederation Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Gaza in Crisis: Reflections on the U.S.-Israeli War on the Palestinians Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends: The Cyberweapons Arms Race Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the U.S. Surveillance State Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Letter to Liberals: Censorship and COVID: An Attack on Science and American Ideals Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Cult of Trump: A Leading Cult Expert Explains How the President Uses Mind Control Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Girl with Seven Names: A North Korean Defector’s Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Humanity Archive: Recovering the Soul of Black History from a Whitewashed American Myth Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Closing of the American Mind Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ever Wonder Why?: and Other Controversial Essays Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race: The Sunday Times Bestseller Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Class War?
11 ratings1 review
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Page and Jacobs argue that there is, in fact, no "class war" brewing in America--that in fact a philosophically conservative American public, in a natural fidelity to fundamental American values of hard work, independence, basic fairness, and equality of opportunity, broadly favors some pragmatically "liberal" government policies. Those policies include public education, progressive taxation, food stamps, and other economic support programs that make it possible for the poor to maintain themselves and those born into poor families to have a genuine opportunity to achieve better lives. Merely saying, "you can do it if you work hard enough," is not enough. For our egalitarian values to mean anything, they have to be backed up by access to the tools that a talented and determined young person can really use to achieve success.
This won't be a welcome message to everyone. We have some politicians who are deeply invested in the idea that the rich resent taxation, and that the middle class resent any money spent on the poor. Page and Jacobs questioned that, and decided to dig into the question in the most pragmatic possible way: looking at, and analyzing, polls on social and economic issues conducted over the last seventy years, plus a new, large-scale, comprehensive poll, on the same questions, using the same wording. What they found is startling: We are not divided on party lines, or economic lines, or social class lines, or geographic lines. In both major parties, all economic classes, and every region of the country, Americans favor both individualism and self-reliance, as well as public intervention to make the "playing field" fair enough to give everyone a real opportunity for success if they work at it. Across economic, geographic, and ideological lines, most Americans support a higher minimum wage, improved public education, wider access to health insurance coverage, and the use of tax dollars to fund these programs. Why? Because you don't have a realistic, fair shot at success, no matter how hard you're willing to work, if you can't get a decent education, or if you can't get medical care when you're sick, or if working full-time at a minimum wage job doesn't provide you the security and stability to save, get more education or training, and take that next step up the ladder.
Recommended.
I received a free electronic copy of this book from the publisher.