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I think I would rather have seen this distribution with income distribution, not wealth. Maybe if the distribution was not so extreme, some might estimate it better. Anyways, Americans think that wealth is distributed more evenly in their country than is the case. But they would like it even more evenly distributed than they believe it is. The above is based on "a nationally representative online sample..., randomly drawn from a panel of more than 1 million Americans." The survey contained 5,522 responses, completed in December of 2005.
(When you buy a book - namely Chris Hayes' new book - the week it comes out, some of the URLs might still work.)
Reference
- Michael I. Norton and Dan Ariely (2011). Building a Better America - One Wealth Quintile at a Time, Perspectives on Psychological Science, V. 6, No. 9: pp. 9-12.
I thought the same thing about income v. wealth. Wealth is just not on display on the same way. Income you get a sense of by seeing what people do for a living... wealth is usually enjoyed in the privacy of your own mansion, so to speak.
ReplyDeleteAt the same time - wealth is really the ticket to power, so ignorance of the actual distribution still has consequences.
Agree with Daniel above. Someone can make 2 million/year, yet live an extravagant lifestyle and not have much underlying wealth.
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