* I’ve been meaning to get to this for a while now, but for some reason kept putting it off. Researchers at Northwestern University and the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago polled some of the Chicago area’s wealthiest people. They only surveyed 104 of them, so it’s not totally scientific, but it’s a one of a kind look at who the so-called “1 percent” are and how they think. A working paper entitled “Wealthy Americans, Philanthropy, and the Common Good” looks at some of the results…
* Problems Facing the U.S.: Asked what they thought was the “most important problem facing the country today,” respondents cited budget deficits most frequently (32%), followed by unemployment (11%) and education (also 11%). Respondents were then asked to go through a list of 11 possible problems and rate them as very important, somewhat important, or not very important at all. Budget deficits again topped the list, with 87% calling them “very important,” followed closely by unemployment (84%), education (79%) and terrorism (74%).
* Political Activities: Wealthy Americans are far more active in politics than less affluent citizens. Nearly all respondents said they voted in the 2008 elections; half of the respondents said they had contacted at least one type of government official in the past year; 41% reported attending a campaign speech or event and 68% said they donated to a political cause or campaign in the past four years. Roughly one of five respondents said they “bundled” contributions from other people for a party or political cause; on average, respondents reported giving $4,633 to political campaigns and organizations in the past year.
* Political Attitudes: When asked to focus on how they would advance the common good, respondents often tended to argue for “getting government out of the way” in favor of free markets or private philanthropy. Of those respondents who considered deficits the most pressing problem, 65% mentioned only cutting spending as the way forward, compared to 35% who favored both spending cuts and revenue increases. No one mentioned only increasing revenue. Most respondents also favored cutting back most federal government programs, including Social Security and health care.
* Volunteer Activities and Charity: Nine in ten respondents said they had done volunteering work in the past year. Most respondents also reported giving money to a wide range of causes; the median respondent in the sample gave 4% of his or her annual income to charity. The authors estimate a household with $10 million in net worth tends to give roughly $40,000 annually to charity, or a little less than one half of 1 percent of its wealth.
The “median” household wealth for the survey group was $7.5 million.
* Nate Silver at 538 compares some of the findings to other polling. For instance, political participation…
In the Chicago sample, 99 percent reported voting in 2008; in the 2008 American National Election Study, only 78 percent of a nationally representative sample reported voting. Both numbers are probably inflated – nowhere near 78 percent of Americans actually voted in 2008 — but it seems unlikely that misleading survey responses would fully account for the gap between the 1 percent and Americans as a whole. Other measures of participation show even larger gaps. For example, 41 percent of the very wealthy reported attending a political meeting. Only 9 percent of Americans did so in 2008. And 68 percent of the very wealthy reported giving money to a political candidate, party, or cause in the last four years. In 2008–a year in which “small donors” were numerous–only 13 percent of Americans donated to a political candidate or party. Again, there are small differences in the wording of the questions between the two surveys, but they are not likely responsible for the 55-point gap.
* Deficits and the economy…
When asked to name the most important problem facing the country, 32 percent of respondents said the deficit and 11 percent said the economy. By contrast, in an April 2011 CBS News/New York Times poll, 49 percent of Americans said the economy or jobs and only 5 percent said the deficit.
* Spending cuts…
Among those who considered the deficit the most important problem, 65 percent favored spending cuts and 24 percent favored a combination of spending cuts and revenue increases. By contrast, a September 2011 New York Times/CBS News poll found that only 21 percent of respondents favored spending cuts exclusively. The majority (71 percent) favored spending cuts and tax increases.
* Northwestern offered up another comparison: Initiating contact with a federal official…
About half of the survey’s 104 respondents reported initiating contact with a member of Congress, White House official or federal regulatory agency official at least once in the last six months. In contrast, a 2008 public opinion survey by American National Election Studies found that only 25 percent of the general public had contacted any elected official in the past 12 months.
* In related news, this is from the Chicago Reporter…
Nationwide, white households are three times more likely to earn more than $200,000—the highest income bracket tracked by the U.S. Census Bureau—than black households. In Chicago, the disparity is even greater with white households being eight times more likely to be in the top bracket than their black counterparts, shows a Chicago Reporter analysis of census data.
For every 10,000 white households in the country, 475 make it into the top income bracket, but in Chicago, the number jumps to 868. For every 10,000 black households in the country, 113 make more than $200,000 compared with 96 in Chicago.
Richard E. Barrett, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Illinois at Chicago, said that Chicago, like other major cities, has a high concentration of wealth and many top-paid managerial jobs, but minority groups tend to represent a marginal group among the ranks.
Discuss.
