Rich People Prefer Democrats
Posted by MichaelW on 05 Nov 2007 at 11:29 pm | Tagged as: Society, MichaelW's Page, Domestic Politics
Or, at least, that’s what the data says:
In a surprising development, the Financial Times reports that the Democratic Party - traditionally the party of minorities and the lower classes - has become the party of the rich.
More and more Democrats represent areas with a high concentration of wealthy households. Using Internal Revenue Service data, the Heritage Foundation identified two categories of taxpayers - single filers with incomes of more than $100,000 and married filers with incomes of more than $200,000 - and combined them to discern where the wealthiest Americans live and who represents them.
The results? “Democrats now control the majority of the nation’s wealthiest congressional jurisdictions. More than half of the wealthiest households are concentrated in the 18 states where Democrats control both Senate seats.”
That’s from Michael van der Galiën (who you should be reading every day), who also ponders if Democratic policy making will be effected by this revelation.
While the fact that a large majority of the very wealthy vote Democratic probably comes as no surprise to anyone living in one of the major metropolises, there are a couple of grains of salt to take with this report:
(1) Those meeting the income thresholds for this report aren’t necessarily all that rich when looking at their peers in places like New York City, Los Angeles, or Washington, D.C. For example, making $100,000 where I live is good money, but not exactly “rich.” They’re not poor either, but the fact that they make a much larger salary than someone in Galax, Virginia, or Sibley, Iowa shouldn’t confuse people into thinking that they’re all flying private jets to the Hamptons for the weekend.
(2) Democratic voters tend to live in or near big cities. The reasons are unimportant for this discussion, but it is a fact. People who live in or near big cities also tend to have incomes larger than people living in more rural areas (as set forth in (1) above).
Ergo, if Democratic voters choose to live in urban areas of the country where salaries are higher (but so is the cost of living) wouldn’t it make sense that “richer” people vote Democratic?
Seems that way to me.
Technorati Tags: Democratic Party, rich people, demographics, urban, rural, voters, income
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