Society’s elite don’t want to pay too much for equality, study suggests
The well-educated and wealthy prefer giving to others when it is cheap and benefits everyone
America's well-educated and wealthy elite don’t like giving their money to others — unless sacrificing a small amount creates a big payoff for someone else, a study published inScience suggests. Otherwise, they’re opposed to giving up a lot of their own money to make everyone's earnings as equal as possible. In other words, the elite don’t want to part with too much of their own income.
This type of re-allocation favored by elites is what the study authors call a more efficient form of wealth redistribution (as opposed to an equitable one); it ensures that everyone benefits in some way, and that no one sacrifices too much of their own money. Since graduates of elite universities and professional schools tend to be policy makers, the study may explain why the divide between the rich and the poor continues to grow. "If they have this efficiency focus, it might make them averse to policies that would call for a greater demand for equity," study author Raymond Fisman, a behavioral economics professor at Boston University, tells The Verge. For instance, certain tax policies like the Bush tax cuts, which reduced top marginal tax rates, are thought to have contributed to this income inequality.
IT MAY EXPLAIN WHY THE DIVIDE BETWEEN THE RICH AND THE POOR CONTINUES TO GROW
To measure America's preferences for income redistribution, Fisman and his team analyzed two different groups: 208 Yale Law students and 309 participants of a national survey known as the American Life Panel. The Yale Law students were representatives of the ultra elite — those with a graduate degree from an Ivy League school. The American Life Panel group served as a diverse representation of the general public.
The groups were given a series of hypothetical scenarios in which they were asked to redistribute money. Participants could give up part of their income so that money could be given to someone else; for instance, a person could forfeit a dollar so someone else would get an extra buck. In some cases, giving to someone else was cheap: a participant could sacrifice 10 cents and someone else would receive a dollar. Other times, giving was expensive: sacrificing a dollar would only result in someone else getting 10 cents. All the choices had varying degrees of trade-off.Society’s elite don’t want to pay too much for equality, study suggests | The Verge:
