abbyjean: Actual represents the actual distribution of wealth. Estimated is what people think the distribution of wealth is. What’s interesting here is the extent to which the public vastly overestimates the prosperity of lower-income Americans. The public thinks the 4th quintile has more money than the median quintile actually has. And the public thinks the 5th quintile has vastly more wealth than it really has. You can easily see how this could have a giant distorting effect on our politics. Poor Americans are simply much, much, much needier than people realize and this is naturally going to lead to an undue slighting of their interests. (via Matthew Yglesias)

abbyjean:

Actual represents the actual distribution of wealth. Estimated is what people think the distribution of wealth is. What’s interesting here is the extent to which the public vastly overestimates the prosperity of lower-income Americans. The public thinks the 4th quintile has more money than the median quintile actually has. And the public thinks the 5th quintile has vastly more wealth than it really has.

You can easily see how this could have a giant distorting effect on our politics. Poor Americans are simply much, much, much needier than people realize and this is naturally going to lead to an undue slighting of their interests. (via Matthew Yglesias)

Source: yglesias.thinkprogress.org

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88 Notes

  1. johnnarock reblogged this from notemily
  2. listofnow reblogged this from notemily and added:
    this. can we also make an appendix chart to explain what most people in our country believe the word “socialist” means...
  3. notemily reblogged this from abbyjean and added:
    before? Oh well, still relevant.
  4. brinstar reblogged this from abbyjean
  5. rmpenguino reblogged this from amberlrhea and added:
    What’s worse that we don’t know or care to know?
  6. adamquinn reblogged this from markyb and added:
    I think part of it is how unfathomable it is for such a small group to own so much. Even if you’re conscious of how much...
  7. markyb reblogged this from adamquinn and added:
    What’s actually interesting is that the even in the group that makes less that 50K (probably in the green group) also...
  8. thatdangergirl reblogged this from cooledskin
  9. cooledskin reblogged this from amberlrhea
  10. amberlrhea reblogged this from abbyjean
  11. resurrecthobbes reblogged this from how-to-kiss-distinctly-american
  12. how-to-kiss-distinctly-american reblogged this from alohanico and added:
    IMPORTANT CHART IS IMPORTANT
  13. alohanico reblogged this from jhnbrssndn
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  17. bespangled reblogged this from abbyjean