Dems: It’s just ‘circumstances’ that make people rich

An overwhelming majority of Democrats believe it is merely “circumstances” that make people rich, not hard work.

Pew Research said its new poll found 65% of Americans “say the main reason some people are rich is because they have had more advantages in life than most other people.”

Among Democrats, 82% adopt that position. Similarly, 86% of Democrats say people end up poor because of the obstacles they’ve faced. Only 16% say hard work is the driver behind becoming rich, and only 12% say lack of hard work leaves people poor.

For Republicans, 45% say people are rich because of their circumstances, and 53% say it’s from hard work. For the poor, 55% say they are poor because of obstacles, and 42% say it’s from their lack of hard work.

The poll was taken Jan. 6-19 among 12,638 U.S. adults who are part of the Center’s American Trends Panel.

“Views of why people are rich have changed significantly over the past few years, with a growing share of Americans saying the main reason a person is rich is because they possess more advantages than other people,” the report said.

“The share [in a recent telephone survey] saying the main reason a person is rich is because they have more advantages than others has increased 13 percentage points since 2018, while there has a been a comparable decline (12 points) in the share attributing a person’s wealth more to hard work. These changes are evident among both Republicans and Democrats,” Pew reported.

“It is important to note that there are mode differences between the telephone and online surveys. The differences are more pronounced among Republicans than Democrats. Comparing the January telephone and panel surveys among Republicans, similar shares say that rich people are wealthy more because ‘they have worked harder than most other people.’ However, there is a 16 percentage point difference in the shares who attribute being rich to having ‘had more advantages in life’ (29% on the phone, 45% online),” the report said.

“One reason for this difference is that a sizable share of Republicans volunteer ‘both’ (14%) or ‘don’t know’ (4%) as a response on the telephone, while these types of volunteered responses are not possible online (a small share – 2% – skip the question online).”

Pew continued: “When asked about the impact of billionaires on the country, a majority (58%) say it is neither bad nor good. … Nearly a quarter (23%) say the fact that some people have personal fortunes of a billion dollars or more is a bad thing, while slightly fewer (19%) see this as a good thing.”