With America’s top earners enjoying bigger and bigger gains each year relative to the rest of the population, most voters would probably see their post-tax-and-transfer income go up (at least in the short term) if the United States implemented a European-style welfare state. So why haven’t voters demanded more redistribution? Why, after forty years of rising economic inequality, does the American political consensus remain so market-oriented, at least relative to other industrialized countries?

Two explanations are popular on the left. The first explanation—popular among Bernie Sanders-style economic populists—posits that voters actually do want more redistribution, but their democratically expressed preferences are blocked by a billionaire class that has the political class in its pocket. The second explanation—popular among elite social liberals—is that many socially conservative voters are duped into voting against their economic self-interest by Republicans’ exploitation of their latent prejudices and resentments on social issues. But the data presented in a new National Bureau of Economic Research working paper from researchers at Yale and Princeton casts serious doubt on both of these explanations.

Read the article “Income Inequality Hasn’t Made Americans Support Redistribution” on the-american-interest.com.