Among the numerous College Know It All Hippie fallacies common in the #OWS movement is the apparent association between having wealth and supporting capitalistic or pro-business policies. It is true that to a point, wealthier individuals are more Republican than poorer ones in their voting habits, but this relationship starts to beak down as income increases, and at lower levels than most might think.
This graph shows the relationship between income and vote in the 2008 election:
As we can see, Republican voting peaks in the 100-200,000 a year range, and those making 200,000+ mostly voted for Obama (The actual numbers are 52%-46%, approximately the same distribution as the nation as a whole).
Although $200,000+ is the richest category in the exit polls, that group is the top 6%, not the top 1%, of the population. However, there is additional evidence (beyond just extrapolating the patterns on this data), that the richer the rich get, the more Democratic in their voting habits they become (and of course, many types of ultra rich make good anecdotes for this phenomenon – Hollywood, music, sports (in many cases), technology CEO’s, Warren Buffett, etc.)
For instance, according to leading rich people expert Robert Frank, author of Richistan and the WSJ’s Wealth Report blog, while the vast majority of those with a net worth of $1 million to $10 million were voting for McCain, those with at least $10 million in wealth were voting for Obama.
To bring this back to the world of percentages, $1.87 million is to wealth cutoff for the top 5%, and $8.272 million is the cutoff for the top 1%. Thus, unless the group between 5% and 6% has some very unusual properties, it seems likely that Obama did even better with the top 1% than the top 6%, who, as we recall, voted approximately like the general population.
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Comments
I’m picturing one OWS hippie turning to another OWS hippie after they’ve been made aware of this post’s conculsion (in this fantasy I’m bestowing high school math skills on OWS hippies)and saying:
You arrogant ass, you’ve killed us (@ about 1:55)
Problem is, the OWS Hippie (as well as most libs) “logic loop” is a closed one, impermeable to anything that would alter it.
You’re looking at it from the standpoint of income. If we look at it in terms of ideology, the OWS protesters are probably the 1% minority, not the people they are supposedly protesting against.
The major media are only highlighting the most innocuous, populist-sounding grievances of these people. However, reports on the ground show that most of the groups participating in OWS are unabashed communists or socialists. Granted, I think a great many of the individuals involved are just infatuated with the idea of a liberal-leftie street protest and aren’t very seriously engaged in the public policy aspects. I imagine for them it’s just something fun and cool do, even if the guy defecating on the next car over DOES happen to advocate the violent overthrow of capitalism.
It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out. At some point, the weather’s going to get really cold and the OWSers (the hard-core folks, not the college kids who are just enhoying the spectacle of it all) are going to figure out their fellow countrymen, starting with the POTUS — have no intention of forgiving all private debt or guaranteeing everyone a $20-hour “living wage.” What then? Do they all just head back to Starbucks and move on, or will there be some further reckoning with their disappointment?
Talk about shooting yourself in the foot. Guess the rich are different, just not smarter.
It’s Maslow’s pyramid. Guilt at their success and the last need to be fulfilled after all lower needs are met … feeling good about oneself through (misguided) compassion.
Haha, the first thing I watched after hearing about these protests was that episode of South Park. Now I laugh every time I hear they’ve started a “drum circle”.
[…] Read it. And ponder the graphs. Among the numerous College Know It All Hippie fallacies common in the #OWS movement is the apparent association between having wealth and supporting capitalistic or pro-business policies. It is true that to a point, wealthier individuals are more Republican than poorer ones in their voting habits, but this relationship starts to beak down as income increases, and at lower levels than most might think. […]
“The Top 1% Probably Voted Disproportionately For Obama”
Imagine my surprise.
No, really – imagine it (‘cuz I ain’t actually surprised).