A fascinating new Gallup poll reveals that the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans have a lot more in common – at least politically – with the rest of us than the “99 percent” in the Occupy Wall Street movement would ever have imagined.
The survey found that the nation’s 1 percent — those in households earning $500,000 or more annually — are somewhat to the right of the remaining 99 percent “but more in terms of party identification than self-professed ideology,” Gallup reported.
One-third of the 1 percenters identify themselves as Republicans, a plurality of 41 percent wear the moniker of independents, and 26 percent say they’re Democrats. This is a mirror image of the 99 percent, a third of whom are Democrats, with 39% independents and a quarter Republicans.
According to Gallup, when the party leanings of independents are taken into account, 57 percent of the nation’s wealthiest adults associate themselves with the Republican Party, compared with 44 percent of the 99 percent.
At the same time, Gallup polling finds little difference in the two groups’ ideological views. Among the very wealthy, 39 percent say their political views are conservative, 41 percent call themselves moderate, and 20 percent liberal, similar to the percentages among all Americans.
To better understand who makes up the top 1 percent, Gallup combined 61 of its nationwide surveys conducted between January 2009 and November 2011. The resulting sample includes nearly 400 adults in households earning $500,000 or more annually, and more than 65,000 in households earning less than that. The official 1 percent in 2010 includes those with incomes of at least $516,633, according to data from the Tax Policy Center.
Lydia Saad of Gallup reports that, “Apart from their bank accounts, Gallup finds education to be the greatest difference between the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans and everyone else. The Gallup analysis reveals that 72 percent of the wealthiest Americans have a college degree, compared with 31p percent of those in the lower 99 percentiles. Furthermore, nearly half of those in the wealthiest group have postgraduate education, versus 16 percent of all others.”
Once again, the latest survey numbers show that college education, particularly an advanced degree, is strongly correlated with household income.
Nine percent of Americans earning less than $20,000 per year are college graduates. That level of schooling rises to majorities of adults in all income groups above $100,000.
Similarly, few adults in low-income households have postgraduate education, and this rises only into the teens among middle-income adults. But it sharply increases among those earning $100,000 or more, peaking at 49 percent with advanced degrees among those earning between $250,000 and $499,000, as well as those earning at least half a million dollars.
While all major racial/ethnic groups are represented in the 1 percent, the group is certainly far more white and a less black than the bottom 99 percent. But one of the most interesting stats is that about one in five of the 1 percenters is not white or black – which indicates, I would guess, that most in that category are some form of Asian.
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