A year ago, to little public notice, the academic journal Perspectives on Politics published a landmark study, "Democracy and the Policy Preferences of Wealthy Americans," by Benjamin Page, Larry Bartels, and Jason Seawright; which reports that, among the American aristocracy, there exists pervasive extreme conservatism, and also a virtual non-stop involvement in politics by them -- in other words, it finds the same two things that writers have hypothesized to exist among aristocracies throughout all of human history. But, for the first time ever, these researchers have now attached precise numbers to these two hypotheses, and have established that this is the way aristocrats actually are. Consequently, the much-noted takeover of "Main Street" by "Wall Street" can be explained by the fact that the aristocracy are far more conservative, and also far more politically active, than the general population are.
73% of the respondents in this study were wealthier than $5 million. 36% were wealthier than $10 million. 22% were wealthier than $20 million. And 8% were wealthier than $40 million.
The wealthier the respondent, the more extreme was his or her extreme conservatism.
40% of the respondents had "Made Contact With" (which was a conspicuously undefined phrase in the study) the person's U.S. Senator.
37% had made contact with with his Representative.
12% had, with a White House Official.
21% had, with an Official at a Regulatory Agency.
Of these "contacts," 44% were asserted to have been for private business reasons, such as to "try to get the Treasury to honor their commitment to extend TARP fund to a particular bank."
99% of respondents had voted in 2008.
84% said that they were paying attention to politics ""most of the time.' Asked how many days of the week they talk politics, the median response was five days. (More than one volunteered "all the time.')" So, now, we know whose brains are connected to Adam Smith's "invisible hand."
"Fully two-thirds contributed money to politics, giving an average of $4,633 to political campaigns or organizations over the previous twelve months." And, "A remarkable 21 percent ... solicited or "bundled' other peoples' political contributions."
What, then, were their political issues, which so obsessed them?
70% were opposed to more federal regulation of "Small business."
87% were opposed to "responsibility of the government to reduce the differences in income between people with high incomes and those with low incomes." Studies of the general public showed that the comparable percentage among the public was 54%.
83% were opposed to the idea that "our government should redistribute wealth by heavy taxes on the rich." 48% of the general public were.
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