Study: Rich Think the Poor Have it Easy

They say money can't buy happiness – although it was probably someone with money who said that – and it apparently doesn't buy compassion either, at least not here in United States.

That's what a new study says about what people on the top think about people on the bottom. The Pew Research Center found that a majority of the American bourgeoisie (54 percent at the very top and 57 percent right below them) think that the poor have it made because the government has their back and they don't have to do anything. The American swells told the Pew researchers that "the poor have it easy because they can get government benefits without doing anything in return."

The survey also found that the greater one's income, the less likely they would agree with the statement that the government should do more for the needy even if it means going into debt. It also found that 60 percent of the more financially secure say that the government can't afford to do more for the poor.

The researchers asked those are struggling along what they thought, and not surprisingly, they think that's a whole scrap of cheap baloney. Seventy percent said any help they get is not nearly enough. The poor face a pretty vicious cycle of trying to get out of poverty, because most don't have the education or skills to get the better-paying jobs, in addition to a lack of affordable housing and childcare, to name just a couple of issues.

The survey doesn't say why there's such a lack of compassion among the rich, but many are politically conservative who advocate for smaller government. 

Researchers didn't look at other government assistance, such as cuts in capital gains taxes, bank bailouts, and other programs that largely help the wealthy. The famous Horatio Alger story of moving up by your own bootstraps is pretty popular among those who advocate for less government help, but even Alger had help along the way. Of course truth never got in the way of a good story, and changing a legendary story with the truth would change all kinds of notions of what the rich think is needed to get ahead. Judging by the survey, it looks like they already have a skewed notion of reality.