Americans Split On Whether U.S. A Country Of Haves, Have-Nots: Poll

The gap between the very wealthiest Americans and the rest of the country has been steadily widening for years -- and a growing number of people seem to be aware of it.

For the second year in a row, a new poll finds, the number of Americans who believe the country is divided into two groups -- the "haves," who control the wealth, and "have-nots," who wield relatively little power -- is on the rise.

A study released Thursday from the Pew Research Center shows that 45 percent of Americans believe society is separated into two those two distinct income groups. Only 35 percent of people believed this was the case in 2009. By last year, the number had risen to 42 percent.

The rise in these numbers coincides with the official duration of the economic recovery, which economists say began in mid-2009. That recovery has been largely disappointing: Unemployment remains high, wages have fallen and growth has slowed to a near-standstill this year. The possibility remains that the country could experience a second downturn into recession.

At the same time, the nation's wealthiest citizens have continued to pull further and further ahead of the majority of people.

The richest 1 percent of Americans now collect 24 percent of the income and control 40 percent of the wealth -- a gap that has become markedly more pronounced in recent years, in a phenomenon the author and economist Paul Krugman calls the "Great Divergence."

Earlier this year, it was reported that the richest 400 people in America control more wealth than the bottom 50 percent of households combined.

Income inequality appears to be a principal concern for the members of Occupy Wall Street, a grassroots movement of protesters currently camped in Manhattan's Financial District who say they are there to represent the bottom "99 percent" of Americans.

The Pew study found that while the number of Americans who believe in the "haves / have-nots" distinction is on the rise, 52 percent of people still do not see it as valid.

It also noted that African Americans were much more likely than whites to say the division is accurate. Seventy-three percent of African-Americans agreed that the country is economically divided, the poll found, compared to just 40 percent of whites.

A study in 2007 found that the income of an average black family was only 58 percent as high as the income of an average white family -- a gap that had grown wider since 1974, when average black income was 63 percent that of average white income.

 

 

Comments

[nypapajoe]

12:37 PM on 10/03/2011

This is prevalent throughout the world but we are bordering on a third world sort of an economy where the 1% of the wealthiest control and dominate everything and seek to de-regulate business oversight in order to gain more at the expense of everyone else via corruption, greed and fairness! We live in a democracy that entitles everyone the opportunity to achieve but the field has been perverted by the conservative right that don't feel that others or as they call it "The Help" should not have the same rights!

[realorpretend]

11:36 AM on 10/03/2011

It's always been a country of both, as it should be.

[Angelica Bung]

02:00 AM on 10/03/2011

They mean it, they don’t want to talk about it or share in public. That’s what rich people getting busy with.

Do you want have a glimpse of it?
I’m sure you’ll get interested with this also, like mine.
Go to GO0GLE, type “BlueGoldHunts”, click the first site, and find out the surprise you have been looking for.

[Peanut Santiago]

11:07 PM on 10/02/2011

Silly poll.

The haves will vote one way and the have nots the opposite way.

And we all know that more and more Americans are becoming have nots......meaning more and more votes will go that way.

[kapalabhati]

08:11 AM on 10/02/2011

Only 45%? Reading these poll data further convinces me that we are a nation of m()rons.

[gala1]

04:18 AM on 10/02/2011

There is no one who has any sympathy for Wall Street. Or for the man who decided to make it possible
Those 700 people arrested over Wall Street did it because they have nothing lose.
They're reacting because the good life is gone and over for them and they don't see it ever coming back. But they do see the mega-rich in their midst getting richer by bleeding everyone else.

There are way, way more of the disillusioned who will feel deprived enough to want to join in and do the same thing.

Now that this movement is showing up in different cities, soon for Obama there will be the karmic sight of the White House surrounded by people who are now broke and in despair because Obama decided it was more important to side with the bankers.
Who bank-rolled his election.

If you think you can be re-elected by the top one percent of the wealth, guess again.
How many in those crowds do you think voted for Obama in good faith that this would never happen to them?
It's a young crowd. Whose future has been possibly permanently stunted merely to provide excess luxury for people who already had more than any of them could hope to earn in a lifetime.

[realorpretend]

11:37 AM on 10/03/2011

Meh… 700 people? ooohhhh, soooo many…. my goodness what a large "demonstration"

[K August]

05:18 PM on 10/05/2011

Obama didn't cause the 2008 meltdown and they're on Wall Street because they KNOW who did cause it.

[kemcha]

11:56 PM on 10/01/2011

This is no surprise. The time is coming because Americans are finally fed up with Washington Politics, Big Business, Corporations, Banks and the wealthy. The current battlefield is Wall Street but I expect that the battleground is going to get larger and encompass a greater portion of our country before summer 2012 gets here.

The unrest is getting larger and no law enforcement agency nor the government will be able to subdue 300 million screaming mad Americans who are tired of getting screwed by those in power and those who have the wealth.

[ljimlong]

09:46 PM on 10/01/2011

Easy credit has led some to believe they are on easy street. As long as they have a job the dream continues. They will find out otherwise when the piper calls. I also know some who are certain they are going to win the lottery if they just keep playing the same numbers week in and week out. How sad. Others are kept in line by the right through the clever use of abortion, gays, and guns. Also sad as none of these have anything to do with governing.

[roxiehart]

09:10 PM on 10/01/2011

[Sandra Stevens-miller]

08:14 PM on 10/01/2011

Why do we keep pushing the envelope? Study history---what is the endgame here----are you sure this is the outcome you want----a further escalation in global war? Can't we agree that everyone screwed up, now let's correct the mess, reform and transform our global financial economy, stop playing media and marketing games, and get a damn life and grow up.

[parrotfish]

12:26 PM on 10/01/2011

Quoting the poll ".... 45 percent of Americans believe society is separated into two those two distinct income groups." So the other 55% are just blind to what is happening around them and what they see with their own eyes.......boy some people are so stupid because they believe that they will be in that 2% of ultra rich people real soon. This is why Buffet was quoted as say the "..class warfare is over, the rich have won.." It is stupid voters that deserve what they elect because they can't think for themselves to know when they are being fed spin by the wealthy and their corporate partners in the media and politics.

[appeallawy]

11:31 AM on 10/01/2011

The ordinary citizen is in a state of slavery to the BIG INTERESTS and their interests have and continue to be sacrificed so that a bloated elite can have more. The ordinary citizen is the orphan in a land ruled by money which has bought the Government and sees to it that Government operates against the citizen by failing to fulfill such traditionally Governmental services as education (we don't want to speak about healthcare)(we don't want to speak about equality before the law) or minimal civil rights and decencies (we don't want to talk about the security state) or protecting the environment (who wants clean air and water anyway when you can go to your alpine chalet).

[carbolaw]

10:22 AM on 10/01/2011

The only way not to believe that we are a country of haves and have nots is to  be in denial. In fact, the reality is except for a very short period of time (for the 40 or so years starting in the mid-30s) we have been a country of haves and have nots.  However, those in power in the past have always looked to temper this division.  When it grew too large steps were taken to alleviate the situation and bring the poor into better standing. 

However, this current group has decided that propaganda and distraction to change the perception of the division is more effective than actually changing the division.  As a result any one who points out the factual division (the record high Gini coefficients which are closer to third world than first world countries, the massive collection of wealth and income at the top, the growing levels of childhood poverty that are by far the worst of any first world country, etc.) is said to be engaging in a "class war" and then are told a class war never got anyone anywhere (of course ignoring the American Revolution, the French Revolution, the American Civil Rights Movement and many other so called "class wars.)

Americans are also fooled into the belief that a rising tide of prosperity will lift us all.  The reality for the past 30+ years has been that the rising tide has been very effective at lifting a few boats and drowning the rest of Americans.   The vast majority of gains over the past 30 years have gone to the top 3-5% of Americans.

Americans are also convinced we are part of the ownership class that is benefiting from the corporate growth.  We are convinced that we need to attack working people (in essence engaging in our own exploitation) in order to look out for the corporate profits that pump up our 401(k)s.  So many fail to realize that we are taking the short end of the stick in that trade off.  

Finally, we are convinced that the poor in this country have it good.  If they are working they should just be happy to have a job.  If they are not working we have the best safety net in the world.  The reality is both of these are fallacies.  Comparing the US to other industrialized countries there is no comparison.  The homelessness, childhood poverty, lack of access to medical care, food insecurity are all much worse here than in other first world countries.  The jobs of the working poor are exploitive jobs that put money in the hands of the capitalists and leave the workers without enough to even survive. 

[blackranger]

10:46 AM on 10/01/2011

Too bad Americans don't know more about other countries. They might better understand where our country is headed if they saw how other countries operate. Somehow they think they are the "elite" and Americans are better off than in other countries. All the news about where we rank in education, in health care, in things like a "free press, in wealth distribution seem to go right over the heads of too many Americans. It is very clear which direction we are now headed and it is not good news.

[Karelh]

08:57 AM on 10/03/2011

That would require us to have a functional public education system...and the right has been dismantling that since Reagan....you can't have voters thinking logically and for themselves...we just can't have that!

[alan2a]

11:34 AM on 10/01/2011

Really really good post. I would add that the ones who continue to create a fantasy reality for the American citizens are the corporate media which has become the mouthpiece of the rich and elite by reporting half truths, repeating talking points and without analysis or context reporting outright lies.

Fanned

[fineartgalaxy]

10:09 AM on 10/01/2011

Of course it is a two economic powers nation. Less than 5% has the sole and absolute financial and lobbying power to create legislation that affects the other 95%. While we send emails, stage protests, write, blog, make phone calls and express our concerns, the 5% has, as we speak, over 2000 lobbyists and more than 200 million dollars working in Congress. Who do you think will receive the better legislation.

[greyhound2]

10:57 AM on 10/01/2011

Hopefully it is getting better. About 5% of the population makes things happen, about 15% of the population is aware that something is happening, and about 80% of the population doesn't have a clue that anything is going on at all.

[PremiumBlend]

11:08 AM on 10/01/2011

Where do you get these statistics from? There are many American's who know what is going on, but at this point are very frustrated and have flat given up. It's sad how many senior citizens I know of that don't vote, don't exercise any voice what-so-ever and have literally had it with this country and just want to move on. The voices of the "little guy" are being silenced by 2 things: lack of money and lack of will to keep fighting the powers above. You'd be amazed at how many people are "in the know" but don't know what to do or where to turn because of how piss pour our government has become. I say wipe out the government, revamp all sectors and GET RID OF THE 2 PARTIES. Nobody understands the word "bipartisan" in Washington, so what's the use to keep them around?

[Steve Otta]

11:32 AM on 10/01/2011

And that 5% makes all their money from the 95%. And now B of A is going to be charging monthly fees for debit cards, make a few more cents off the people who can't afford it.

[liquidwallpaper]

09:13 AM on 10/01/2011

We are approaching a very dangerous time. When that number goes into two thirds of the population believe we are have nots that is when the wealthy should get more security. Third world countries have crimes committed on the wealthy all the time and the richest have a lot of security. Kidnapping and murder are common in some countries against the wealthy. With all the reality shows having wealthy people flaunting how they live so much better than the rest they are creating a target of themselves. The poor are already resenting the wealthy it is only a matter of time.