As attention shifts to economic recovery this summer, Joe Biden and the Left will ramp up their rhetorical attacks on wealthy individuals. But will this perennial tactic be effective?

How people feel about the rich depends above all on how envious they are. For envious people, the rich are primarily scapegoats they can pin the blame on for all manner of crises. For people who experience little or no envy, on the other hand, the rich are role models. This is one of the key findings of a representative survey of 1,084 people in the United States conducted by Ipsos MORI, just published by the Cato Institute in my new book, The Rich in Public Opinion.