Afternoon Must-Read: Vivekinan Ashok et al.: Support for Redistribution in an Age of Rising Inequality
“Keep the government’s hands off my Medicare!” was supposed to be a joke at the expense of a small uninformed fringe, not a typical and widespread reaction:
…[with] substantial heterogeneity by demographic groups…. The two groups who have most moved against income redistribution are the elderly and African-Americans…. The elderly trend is uniquely American…. One story consistent… is that they worry that redistribution will come at their expense, in particular via cuts to Medicare. We find that the elderly have grown increasingly opposed to government provision of health insurance…. For blacks, controlling for their declining support of race-targeted aid explains a large portion of their differential decline in redistributive preferences…