Public opinion and "income inequality"

Somewhat related to the previous blog post (Feb. 5), in Tuesday's New York Times, an article discussed how Obama and his party are moving away from talk of "income inequality." Inequality as a message, the reasoning goes, is less specific than that of opportunity, and lacks voter appeal.

The article presents some interesting data:

The nonpartisan Pew Research Center recently found in a survey that six out of 10 Americans believe that the nation’s economic system unfairly favors the wealthy.... There also was "broad consensus" that government should help people escape poverty, but "substantially less agreement" that government should act to reduce the gap between the rich and everyone else.

Though technically correct, the data are being presented in a marketing context and therefore the variations get overstated slightly. The point made by the article is that, as messages, income inequality doesn't sell as well as poverty. Yet, it is well worth noting that, though the numbers indicate less agreement with regard to income gap, the percentages are still rock-solid majorities.

The Pew poll asked, "How much should the government do to reduce poverty and inequality?" The categories were the government should do: A lot, Some, Not much, or Nothing at all. Concerning the question about poverty, 82 percent either said a lot or some. Concerning inequality, 69 percent either said a lot or some.

For political strategists, the difference is probably significant. For the rest of us, the values should be.