Over the course of American history, support for economic redistribution has been the exception, not the rule. In the 20th century, support for redistributive policies emerged as a dominant force in national politics only in the Depression decade of the 1930s; it was intermittently influential from 1945 to 1965. More […] Read more »
Americans Think Obamacare Will Help the Poor, Not the Country
More Americans continue to say that President Obama’s health care law will help the poor and the uninsured rather than their own families or the country overall, the latest United Technologies/National Journal Congressional Connection Poll has found. Combined with the survey results released Monday, these attitudes capture the tenuous political […] Read more »
Poverty in America Is Mainstream
Few topics in American society have more myths and stereotypes surrounding them than poverty, misconceptions that distort both our politics and our domestic policy making. They include the notion that poverty affects a relatively small number of Americans, that the poor are impoverished for years at a time, that most […] Read more »
Bill de Blasio and the New Urban Populism
In an era of Clintonesque caution, when Democrats typically mute any expression of their leftward leanings, Bill de Blasio, who will almost certainly be elected mayor of New York City two weeks from now, does not concede an inch to the right. … Does the advent of a new era […] Read more »
The Color of Affordable Care
… An Associated Press survey of racial attitudes conducted immediately before the presidential election last year clearly suggests that most Americans try not to discriminate, but that racial loyalties shape their perceptions of economic benefits. When asked if President Obama’s race affected the likelihood they would vote for him, 80 […] Read more »
Rich People Just Care Less
… A growing body of recent research shows that people with the most social power pay scant attention to those with little such power. … Bringing the micropolitics of interpersonal attention to the understanding of social power, researchers are suggesting, has implications for public policy. [cont.] Daniel Goleman, New York […] Read more »