SENSITIVITY DEPENDS ON KNOWLEDGE

(h/t Mark Thoma)

Dan Little writes:

What Americans don't yet seem to have is a specific moral sensitivity to extreme inequalities of income and wealth. The fact of the accelerating concentration of income at the top doesn't seem to produce the moral outrage in the US that perhaps it would in France or Germany. ...

THE REASON THEY AREN'T SENSITIVE IS BECAUSE THEY DON'T KNOW HOW EXTREME THE U.S. IS!

This is from an article in Mother Jones:

Out of Balance

A Harvard business prof and a behavioral economist recently asked more than 5,000 Americans how they thought wealth is distributed in the United States. Most thought that it’s more balanced than it actually is. Asked to choose their ideal distribution of wealth, 92% picked one that was even more equitable.