As pointed out by writer Neil Irwin, since the nineteen seventies, middle class incomes have been stagnant in inflation adjusted terms while the wealthy have tended to do much better. Accordingly, income and wealth inequality have risen. Despite that, the views of Americans about whether the government should work harder to redistribute income, by taxing the rich more aggressively, for instance, have either remained roughly unchanged or shifted toward greater skepticism regarding the benefits of redistribution.
In nineteen eighty, the highest earning Americans faced a seventy percent tax on each dollar they brought in beyond two hundred fifteen thousand four hundred dollars. Over the past decade, the top marginal income tax rate has ranged between thirty five and thirty nine point six percent. But except for the occasional occupy movement rally, there is hardly a groundswell of support for soaking the rich.
A working paper from the Brookings Papers on Economic Activity analyzes how thinking regarding redistribution has varied over time among groups. One of the more interesting conclusions is that the shift away from a belief in redistribution has been stronger among older Americans than among any other age group.
