So I was reading this story about water restrictions imposed in the wake of California’s horrible drought, and how wealthy people are reacting to them, and it reminded me that rich people are kind of jerks. That’s one big reason lots of solvable social problems aren’t getting solved.
The policy preferences of jerksLest we draw overly broad conclusions from one story — maybe the rich are just jerks about water? — let’s take a broader look at the policy preferences of the rich. (Note: when I say “rich,” I mean the 1 percent and above.)
This is of more than academic interest. Recent research from political scientists Martin Gilens and Benjamin Page concludes that “economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy, while average citizens and mass-based interest groups have little or no independent influence.”
So the attitudes, preferences, and behaviors of the rich have outsize effects not only in terms of their direct dispensation of resources, which is enormous in itself, but even more in terms of their disproportionate influence over public policy, which affects millions.
