About seven in 10 Americans, including a majority of those making more than $24,000 a year, say they have enough money to do what they need to do. However, it is not until Americans reach $48,000 a year in annual income that a majority say they can handle a substantial […] Read more »
Money May Not Buy Happiness, But It Helps
While very few Americans say that money is the most important factor in determining whether they’re happy in life, the more they earn the happier they are, according to a new University of Connecticut/Hartford Courant Poll. The survey provides an in-depth look at how Americans feel about their lives, gauging […] Read more »
Inequality update
Inequality has become the new hot topic over the last several years – in the media and in the research community. This post briefly reports several recent studies of inequality that tell us what’s been happening, why, and to what effect. (It’s not a cheery story.) Before that, notice how […] Read more »
Economic recovery favors the more-affluent who own stocks
The surge in the stock market this year – restoring much of the wealth that had been lost during the financial meltdown that struck in 2007 – has masked the unevenness of the recovery among Americans since 2009. A Federal Reserve board analysis this week spelled out the reason: stock […] Read more »
Our Feelings About Inequality: It’s Complicated
How much do Americans care about rising income inequality? Surveys send mixed signals. In a poll released last year by the Pew Research Center, two-thirds of Americans agreed that there were “strong conflicts between the rich and poor” — up substantially from when the question was asked in 2009 — […] Read more »
That’s Rich: Wealthy Americans, more than the middle class, say the Grand Old Party is out of touch
Ever since last year’s election, the nation’s conservatives have been in self-preservation mode: They know something about the GOP needs to change, but they don’t want it to be them. The party establishment would prefer to jettison cultural issues, since it never cared much about cultural issues, anyway. And the […] Read more »