Why Americans Don't Want to Soak the Rich - NYTimes.com - 0 views
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How you make sense of this seeming paradox of rising inequality and flat or declining support for redistribution depends on your ideological assumptions.
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If you’re conservative, a compelling answer might be this: Americans are seeking less redistribution because they have come to their senses. They realized the very high tax rates and generous social spending that prevailed in the middle decades of the 20th century came at a high economic cost, and that low taxes on the rich encouraged greater investment and entrepreneurship, spurring faster economic growth that ultimately made everybody better off
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If you’re a liberal, the answer might be more like this: Americans have been hoodwinked by conservative politicians and media outlets, and have come to view redistribution as a dirty word because they don’t recognize the ways it benefits them. This barrage of misinformation has led them to view any redistributive efforts as welfare that goes to somebody else, particularly to someone with a different color skin.
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