If you want to know more about the perception of inequality by US citizens, and how far it is distant from reality, you must read the work of Nick Fitz, a graduate student at the National Core for Neuroethics at the University of British Columbia, on Scientific american, to discover the real conditions are far worse than people think.
“The top 20% of US households own more than 84% of the wealth, and the bottom 40% combine for a paltry 0.3%. (…) As the journalist Chrystia Freeland put it, “Americans actually live in Russia, although they think they live in Sweden. And they would like to live on a kibbutz.” Norton and Ariely found a surprising level of consensus: everyone — even Republicans and the wealthy—wants a more equal distribution of wealth than the status quo. (…) The researchers found Americans overestimate the amount of upward social mobility that exists in society”.
In the conclusion, the Author notice “the three papers in Perspectives on Psychological Science indicate not only that economic inequality is much worse than we think, but also that social mobility is less than you’d imagine. Our unique brand of optimism prevents us from making any real changes”.
What (re)action could people take in case of better information…? Continue reading here.
