Thursday, August 02, 2012

Americans Want to Live in a Much More Equal Country (They Just Don't Realize It) - Dan Ariely - The Atlantic

Americans Want to Live in a Much More Equal Country (They Just Don't Realize It) - Dan Ariely - The Atlantic

The inequality of wealth and income in the U.S. has become an increasingly prevalent issue in recent years. One reason for this is that the visibility of this inequality has been increasing gradually for a long time--as society has become less segregated, people can now see more clearly how much other people make and consume. 





Social justice and optimal wealth distribution are highly complex topics, and it's hard to imagine that any study could dramatically change opinions about education, welfare, or tax reform. But consider this. When we ran the same basic experiment in Australia, we found Australians did not differ much from Americans in their views of the ideal distribution. When we ran another version of it with NPR listeners, and then readers ofForbes Magazine, the results were still basically the same. And most likely, if you participated in one of our tests, your response too would have fallen in line with these findings. 

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