One of the enduring mysteries is why so many struggling poor people in the US are opposed to government programs that would assist people just like them. The Economist reports on recent studies that shed new light on this odd phenomenon. (via Boing Boing)
Economists have usually explained poor peoples counter-intuitive disdain for something that might make them better off by invoking income mobility. Joe the Plumber might not be making enough to be affected by proposed hikes in tax rates on those making more than $250,000 a year, they argue, but he hopes some day to be one of them. This theory explains some cross-country differences, but it would also predict increased support for redistribution as income inequality widens. Yet the opposite has happened in America, Britain and other rich countries where inequality has risen over the past 30 years.
Instead of opposing redistribution because people expect to make it to the top of the economic ladder, the authors of the new paper argue that people don’t like to be at the bottom. One paradoxical consequence of this “last-place aversion” is that some poor people may be vociferously opposed to the kinds of policies that would actually raise their own income a bit but that might also push those who are poorer than them into comparable or higher positions. The authors ran a series of experiments where students were randomly allotted sums of money, separated by $1, and informed about the “income distribution” that resulted. They were then given another $2, which they could give either to the person directly above or below them in the distribution.
In keeping with the notion of “last-place aversion”, the people who were a spot away from the bottom were the most likely to give the money to the person above them: rewarding the “rich” but ensuring that someone remained poorer than themselves. Those not at risk of becoming the poorest did not seem to mind falling a notch in the distribution of income nearly as much. This idea is backed up by survey data from America collected by Pew, a polling company: those who earned just a bit more than the minimum wage were the most resistant to increasing it.
Poverty may be miserable. But being able to feel a bit better-off than someone else makes it a bit more bearable.
The plutocrats and their political hired hands understand this phenomenon very well and, in the US, have been exploiting it effectively at least since Nixon’s time. I don’t know what took economists, psychologists, and political commentators so long to figure it out. It’s much more plausible on its face than the far-fetched idea that large numbers of poor people expect to be well off someday.
I think that in the US, the spiteful, self-righteous moralism of evangelical Christianity is a big contributor to this mindset. (Along with racism, of course.)
These might be contributing factors but there is a simpler explanation. The oligarchy (GOP) lies and the poor believes they will pay more taxes as well. The GOP makes it very difficult for people to understand that taxes will be raised in a tiered system starting with incomes >250k. The information pushed by the media is that “taxes will be raised”.
Steve touches on something important here. The interests of the lower socio-economic strata could be advanced more effectively if poor whites would work with Latinos and blacks. But, as the history of southern segregation made all too clear, poor whites derived a feeling of superiority from keeping the blacks a perpetual underclass. This was most convenient for the “owners” (as George Carlin would say), making poor whites submissive to policies that really weren’t in their own interests. Divide et impera….
Shalom Mano,
Mel Brooks nailed the phenomenon years ago.
B’shalom,
Jeff
I’ve been trying to understand this phenomena for some time and thought simply that Americans don’t really “like” each other. Steve’s explanation is spot on.
As an Afro-Latino intellectual, I’ve observed this troubling phenomena time and time again right here in Cleveland. I’ve spoken with Libertarians who are on barely above welfare. It seems even that incremental difference is enough for them lol. The irrationality of people is on brilliant display as the march of the morons continue.
No body likes to be at the bottom I can understand that but we do forget that we always start from the bottom and the motivation to be at the top lead us to success.