Fair Share: 90% of Americans Want Wealth Shared in a Way that Looks Like Socialism

Photo by Camylla Battani on Unsplash

Today’s proof that most people are good: 90% of Americans want a much fairer distribution of wealth. A decade ago, a major study by Michael Norton and Dan Ariely revealed that nine out of ten Americans, regardless of race, sex, politics, or class, want an economic hierarchy that gives 36% of the nation’s wealth to the top fifth of the population, and smaller shares to each lower fifth, leaving the bottom fifth with 11% of the wealth.

The actual distribution of wealth is strikingly different. In reality, the top 1% of US households has a third of the wealth. The next 9% has another third. The last third is divided unequally among the next 50%, leaving the bottom two-fifths with so little that they are invisible on a chart of the actual distribution of wealth.

Because of their small percentage share of total wealth, both the ‘‘4th 20%’’ value (0.2%) and the ‘‘Bottom 20%’’ value (0.1%) are not visible in the ‘‘Actual’’ distribution.

What strikes me when comparing the actual distribution of wealth and what 90% of Americans want:

• They want the bottom fifth to have 11% of the wealth—as much as the…