Colleagues,
I bring to your attention the following article, which seems particularly relevant to those with interests in social class and ideology.
Cheers,
David
Norton, M. I., & Ariely, D. (2011). Building a better America-One wealth quintile at a time.
Perspectives on Psychological Science, 6(1), 9-12.
Abstract: "Disagreements about the optimal level of wealth inequality underlie policy debates ranging from taxation to welfare. We attempt to insert the desires of "regular" Americans into these debates, by asking a nationally representative online panel to estimate the current distribution of wealth in the United States and to "build a better America" by constructing distributions with their ideal level of inequality. First, respondents dramatically underestimated the current level of wealth inequality. Second, respondents constructed ideal wealth distributions that were far more equitable than even their erroneously low estimates of the actual distribution. Most important from a policy perspective, we observed a surprising level of consensus: All demographic groups-even those not usually associated with wealth redistribution such as Republicans and the wealthy-desired a more equal distribution of wealth than the status quo."
-- David A. Kravitz, PhD GDO Division Chair, Academy of Management Professor of Management School of Management 212 Enterprise Hall, MSN 5F5 George Mason University 4400 University Drive Fairfax, VA 22030-4444 703-993-1781 (Voice) 703-993-1870 (fax) gdodak@gmu.edu http://mason.gmu.edu/~dkravitz/