DENVER — Interest in income inequity is all the rage in public debate, with political figures from Sen. Elizabeth Warren on the left to Republican presidential prospect Jeb Bush on the right decrying the widening gap between the wealthy and everyone else.
But Americans aren’t nearly as fascinated by the issue as their leaders seem to be. The public’s focus on income inequity has remained stagnant in the past 36 years, according to the General Social Survey, which measures trends in opinion. Republican support for the government doing something to narrow the gap between rich and poor reached an all-time low in 2014, and even Democrats were slightly less interested in government action to address the issue than they were two years ago.
The survey is conducted by the independent research organization NORC at the University of Chicago. Because of its long-running and comprehensive set of questions about the public, it is a highly regarded source of data about social trends. Numbers from the 2014 survey came out last week, and an analysis of its findings on income inequity was conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and the General Social Survey.
Less than half of Americans — 46 percent — say the government ought to reduce income differences, a level that has held fairly steady since the survey began asking the question in 1978. Thirty-seven percent say the government shouldn’t concern itself with income differences, while the rest don’t feel strongly either way.
Division between Democrats and Republicans on the issue is at its widest point ever, with 64 percent of Democrats, but only 24 percent of Republicans, saying the government ought to do something to address it.
