4 in 10 See Nation of ‘Haves’ and ‘Have-nots’

4 in 10 See
Nation of ‘Haves’ and ‘Have-nots’

And more
than one-third in a Pew survey classify themselves as ‘have-nots’

April 29,
2010

- Mark
Dolliver

Some say
the economic downturn has been a unifying experience for the nation, in the
sense that it has hurt most people to one degree or another. But it’s hard to
feel we’re all in the same boat if some people still seem more the yachting
type than others. And that’s the way many Americans see things, to judge by the
findings of a new survey by the Pew
Research Center
for the People & the Press.

Conducted
last week and this week, the survey asked respondents whether they think
American society is “divided into haves and have-nots.” Forty-two
percent said it is, 53 percent said it isn’t, and the rest declined to pick or
volunteered some other answer.

The number
who say the country is divided into haves and have-nots is higher than it was
last April, when it stood at 35 percent. But it’s squarely on the average found
in Pew polling on this topic in the past 10 years. Whatever else it has done,
the recession has not extinguished the belief by a large minority of Americans
than the nation is divided in this way.

As you
might guess, the belief that America
is divided into haves and have-nots grows more widespread as one goes down the
income scale. Among respondents with household income above $75,000, 35 percent
said they believe American society is so divided. The figure rose to 40 percent
among those in the $30,000-74,999 bracket and to 52 percent among those in the
under-$30,000 cohort. Race was also a sharp dividing line: 66 percent of
non-Hispanic blacks said the country is split into haves and have-nots, vs. 37
percent of non-Hispanic whites.

Another
question in the same survey asked people which class they’d say is the one to
which they belong (“if you had to choose”). Forty-five percent
classified themselves as “haves” and 36 percent as
“have-nots.” Nine percent volunteered that they’re
“neither,” and 10 percent declined to choose.

The
proportion of respondents who consider themselves “haves” is three
percentage points below last year and four points below its average in 10 Pew
polls dating back to 2001.