In America, the old idea was that anyone could be a success if he or she were willing to put in the hard work. Most people no longer believe that story.
If you’re rich, it’s because you had the upper hand, most people think — including almost all Democrats.
Pew Research Center asked the public, “In your opinion, which generally has to do with [why a person is rich]?” Respondents could choose that rich individuals either “had more advantages in life than most other people” or that they have “worked harder than most other people.”
By a 2-1 margin, respondents credited circumstances and advantages over hard work. As recently as 2018, the country had been split evenly on this question. Meanwhile, 39% of young adults (under the age of 30) said they think it’s a bad thing that billionaires exist. Only 16% say it’s a good thing.
Unsurprisingly, there are party and ideological differences here. A full 82% of Democrats say rich people got rich mostly through advantages compared to 45% of Republicans who thought so. Conservatives were most likely to see billionaires’ existences as a good thing, while liberals were the least likely.
At the same time, though, Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, and Elon Musk (all billionaires) are very popular. Gates, with a net worth over $100 billion, is liked by 58% of the public and disliked by only 13%.
We seem to like actual billionaires more than the idea of billionaires.
On the other end of the spectrum is our view of how the poor get poorer. Here, the ideological divide is less stark because conservatives are less likely to blame the poor for their lot than they are to credit the rich for theirs. Most Republicans (55%) say a poor person is poor mostly because of disadvantages.
