Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-vdxz6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T10:10:02.307Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Getting Ahead through Our Own Efforts: Public Attitudes towards the Deservingness of the Rich in New Zealand

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 September 2014

PETER SKILLING
Affiliation:
Faculty of Business and Law, Auckland University of Technology email: [email protected]
JESSICA McLAY
Affiliation:
Department of Statistics, University of Auckland email: [email protected]

Abstract

The high level of academic, public and policy attention paid to the deservingness of the poor and (especially) of welfare recipients contrasts with the scant attention paid to the deservingness – or otherwise – of the rich. This discrepancy reflects socially dominant – but contestable – ideas about equality of opportunity and the role of individual merit within market systems. In this journal, Karen Rowlingson, Stewart Connor and Michael Orton have noted that wealth and riches have remained invisible as policy ‘problems’. This invisibility is socially important, in that policy efforts to address current, socially damaging, levels of economic inequality require attention to the deservingness of the rich, as well as of the poor. This article draws on recent survey data from New Zealand to provide new insights into public attitudes to the rich. It finds that the New Zealand public view the rich as more individually deserving of their outcomes than the poor are deserving of social assistance, and that attitudes towards the rich are related to redistributive sentiments at least as strongly as attitudes towards the poor. In concluding, the article reflects on the limitations of existing data sources and makes suggestions for future research.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adams, C. (2012), ‘CEO pay survey: salaries stall for NZ's top bosses’, New Zealand Herald, 8 June, http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10811482.Google Scholar
Alvaredo, F., Atkinson, A., Piketty, T. and Saez, E. (2014), The World Top Incomes Database, http://topincomes.g-mond.parisschoolofeconomics.eu/Google Scholar
Atkinson, A. B. and Leigh, A. (2005), The Distribution of Top Incomes in New Zealand, CEPR Discussion Paper 503, Canberra: Australian National University.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bamfield, L. and Horton, T. (2009), Understanding Attitudes to Tackling Economic Inequality, York: Joseph Rowntree Foundation.Google Scholar
Bartels, L. M. (2005), ‘Homer gets a tax cut: inequality and public policy in the American mind’, Perspectives on Politics, 10: 2, 1531.Google Scholar
Bartels, L. M. (2008), Unequal Democracy: The Political Economy of the New Gilded Age, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Brash, D. (2005), ‘Getting ahead by our own efforts’, New Zealand Herald, 23 August, Section A, p.12, http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10341988.Google Scholar
Burak, E. (2013), ‘The social maximum: American attitudes toward extremely high incomes’, Research in Social Stratification and Mobility, 31: 97114.Google Scholar
Cheung, J. (2007), Wealth Disparities in New Zealand, Wellington: Statistics New Zealand.Google Scholar
Collins, S. (2006), ‘Laziness gets the blame’, New Zealand Herald, 4 February, p. A3.Google Scholar
Dean, H. with Melrose, M. (1999), Poverty, Riches and Social Citizenship, Basingstoke: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Easton, B. (1997), The Commercialisation of New Zealand, Auckland: Auckland University Press.Google Scholar
Fehr, E. and Falk, A. (2002), Psychological Foundations of Incentives, IZA Discussion paper series, No. 507.Google Scholar
Gilens, M. (2005), ‘Inequality and democratic responsiveness’, Public Opinion Quarterly, 69: 5, 778–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hacker, J. and Pierson, P. (2010), Winner-Take-All Politics: How Washington Made the Rich Richer and Turned Its Back on the Middle Class, New York: Simon & Schuster.Google Scholar
Heath, A., Graaf, N. D. d. and Li, Y. (2010), ‘How fair is the route to the top? Perceptions of social mobility’, in Park, Alison, Curtice, John and Clery, Elizabeth (eds.), British Social Attitudes − the 27th Report: Exploring Labour's Legacy, London: Sage, pp. 2950, http://www.natcen.ac.uk/media/606946/nat%20british%20social%20attitudes%20survey%20summary%202.pdf.Google Scholar
Hills, J. and Stewart, K. (eds.) (2005), A More Equal Society? New Labour, Poverty, Inequality and Exclusion, Bristol: Policy Press.Google Scholar
Humpage, L. (2008), ‘Radical change or more of the same? Public attitudes towards social citizenship in New Zealand since neoliberal reform’, Australian Journal of Social Issues, 43: 2, 216–30.Google Scholar
Humpage, L. (2011), ‘Neo-liberal reform and attitudes towards social citizenship: a review of New Zealand public opinion data 1987–2005’, Social Policy Journal of New Zealand, 37: June, 8396.Google Scholar
Inequality Briefing (2013), ‘Wealth inequality in the UK’, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOJ93tAbPP0.Google Scholar
ISSP (1992–2009), Datasets of the New Zealand modules of the International Social Survey Programme.Google Scholar
James, C. (1997), ‘The Policy Revolution 1984–1993’, in Miller, R. (ed.), New Zealand Politics in Transition, Auckland: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Jencks, C. (2002), ‘Does inequality matter?’, Daedalus, 49–65.Google Scholar
Kelsey, J. (2000), Reclaiming the Future: New Zealand and the Global Economy, Toronto: University of Toronto Press.Google Scholar
Lane, R. E. (1986), ‘Market justice, political justice’, The American Political Science Review, 80: 2, 383402.Google Scholar
Layard, R. (2005), Happiness: Lessons from a New Science, London: Allen Lane.Google Scholar
Lind, J. T. (2005), ‘Why is there so little redistribution?’, Nordic Journal of Political Economy, 31: 111–25.Google Scholar
McCall, L. and Kenworthy, L. (2009), ‘Americans’ social policy preferences in the era of rising inequality’, Perspectives on Politics, 7: 3, 459–84.Google Scholar
Neal, D., Govan, C., Norton, M. I. and Ariely, D. (2011), Australian Attitudes towards Wealth Inequality and the Minimum Wage, Australian Council of Trade Unions.Google Scholar
Niemeyer, S. (2011), ‘The emancipatory effect of deliberation: empirical lessons from mini-publics’, Politics and Society, 39: 1, 103–40.Google Scholar
Norton, M. I. and Ariely, D. (2011), ‘Building a better America – one wealth quintile at a time’, Perspectives on Psychological Science, 6: 1, 912.Google Scholar
Nozick, R. (1974), Anarchy, State and Utopia, New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
NZES (1990–2011), Datasets of the New Zealand Election Surveys.Google Scholar
NZJES (2011), Dataset of the New Zealand Justice and Equality Survey.Google Scholar
Obama, B. (2012), ‘State of the Union Address’, The Guardian, 25 January, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/25/state-of-the-union-address-full-text.Google Scholar
OECD (2011a), Divided We Stand: Why Inequality Keeps Rising, Paris: OECD.Google Scholar
OECD (2011b), An Overview of Growing Income Inequalities in OECD Countries: Main Findings, Paris: OECD.Google Scholar
Orton, M. and Rowlingson, K. (2007A), ‘A problem of riches: towards a new social policy research agenda on the distribution of economic resources’, Journal of Social Policy, 36: 1, 5977.Google Scholar
Orton, M. and Rowlingson, K. (2007B), Public Attitudes to Economic Inequality, York: Joseph Rowntree Foundation.Google Scholar
Perry, B. (2013), Household Incomes in New Zealand: Trends in Indicators of Inequality and Hardship 1982 to 2012, Wellington: Ministry of Social Development.Google Scholar
Rashbrooke, M. (ed.) (2013), Inequality: A New Zealand Crisis, Wellington: Bridget Williams Books.Google Scholar
Rothstein, B. and Uslaner, E. M. (2005), ‘All for all: equality, corruption, and social trust’, World Politics, 58: 1, 4172.Google Scholar
Rowlingson, K. and Connor, S. (2011), ‘The “deserving” rich? inequality, morality and social policy’, Journal of Social Policy, 40: 3, 437–52.Google Scholar
Sachweh, P. (2012), ‘The moral economy of inequality: popular views on income differentiation, poverty and wealth’, Socio-Economic Review, 10: 3, 419–45.Google Scholar
Saez, E. (2012), Striking it richer: the evolution of top incomes in the United States (updated with 2009 and 2010 estimates), http://elsa.berkeley.edu/~saez/saez-UStopincomes-2010.pdf.Google Scholar
Sherraden, M. (1991), Assets and the Poor: A New American Welfare Policy, New York: Armonk.Google Scholar
Singer, P. (2007), ‘What should a billionaire give – and what should you?’, in Wallace, D. F. and Atwan, R. (eds.), Best American Essays 2007, New York: Mariner Books.Google Scholar
Skilling, P. (2013), ‘Egalitarian myths in New Zealand: a review of public opinion data on inequality and redistribution’, New Zealand Sociology, 28: 3, 1643.Google Scholar
Statistics New Zealand. (1999), ‘Income distribution in New Zealand’, http://www.stats.govt.nz/browse_for_stats/income-and-work/Income/income-distribution-in-nz.aspx.Google Scholar
Stiglitz, J. (2012), The Price of Inequality: How Today's Divided Society Endangers Our Future, New York: W.W. Norton & Co.Google Scholar
Taylor-Gooby, P. (2013), ‘Why do people stigmatise the poor at a time of rapidly increasing inequality, and what can be done about it?’, The Political Quarterly, 84: 1, 3142.Google Scholar
Titumuss, R. (1958), Essays on the Welfare State, London: Allen & Unwin.Google Scholar
Uslaner, E. (2008), ‘The foundations of trust: macro and micro’, Cambridge Journal of Economics, 32: 289–94.Google Scholar
Van Oorschot, W. (2000), ‘Who should get what and why? On deservingness criteria and the conditionality of solidarity among the public’, Policy and Politics, 28: 1, 3348.Google Scholar
Wade, R. (2013), ‘Inequality and the West’, in Rashbrooke, M. (ed.), Inequality: A New Zealand Crisis, Wellington: Bridget Williams Books.Google Scholar
Wilkinson, R. (1996), Unhealthy Societies: The Afflictions of Inequality, London: Routledge.Google Scholar