Conservative and liberal
political commentators alike have wondered why most Americans have enthusiastically supported two of the largest tax cuts
in history even though most benefits will flow to upper-income families.
Adding to the conundrum,
in public opinion surveys Americans express support for spending more on government programs like education, opposition to
government budget deficits, and disappointment that the gap in income between rich and poor has widened -- all of which are
in conflict with regressive tax cuts.
In the most extensive
analysis yet available, Larry Bartels, a political scientist at Princeton, gives a simple but persuasive explanation: "unenlightened
self-interest."Middle- and lower-income Americans supported tax cuts they suspected went largely to
the rich because they thought they, too, would benefit, if only by a small amount, and because they failed to connect the
tax cuts to rising inequality, their future tax burden or the availability of government services. ...
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in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social
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107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without
profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain
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