Americans growing increasingly aware of class conflict

By Catholic Online (NEWS CONSORTIUM)
1/12/2012
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

'We are the 99 percent' rhetoric of Occupy Wall Street has had impact

The scruffy brigades of the Occupy Wall Street movement - composed of the homeless, activists and just plain disgruntled American public - have made a significant impact on the national psyche. According to recent polls, Americans are seeing an increasing divide among the population rich and poor, immigrant and native, black and white. The ongoing recession may have also magnified class differences as income inequality has risen.

The scruffy brigades of the Occupy Wall Street movement - composed of the homeless, activists and just plain disgruntled American public - have made a significant impact on the national psyche.

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LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - In 2009, 47 percent of those polled said there were "very strong" or "strong" conflicts between the rich and poor. In 2011, 66 percent joined that perception.

Significantly more Americans now see "very strong" or "strong" class conflict between the rich and poor, according to a survey by the Pew Research Center.

This divide has certainly been seen politically. Democrats along with President Barack Obama have spoken out about income inequality.

"Now, this kind of inequality -- a level that we haven't seen since the Great Depression -- hurts us all," Obama said in a December speech in Kansas. GOP front-runner Mitt Romney has in turn charged Obama with promulgating the "politics of envy." Romney has said that discussions over the distribution of wealth were "fine" to talk about "in quiet rooms in discussions about tax policy."

The topic of income inequality in the mass media has also risen significantly since the start of the Occupy Wall Street movement.

The survey also found that whites had significantly larger increases in perception of class conflict than blacks and Hispanics, rising to 65 percent from 43 percent in 2009. Seventy-four percent of blacks and 61 percent of Hispanics see class conflicts, increasing by single digits from 2009.

The perception of class conflict has grown. Thirty percent see "very strong conflicts," which has doubled from 2009, the largest such increase since the question was first asked in 1987.

Grievances against the wealthy haven't increased, with 46 percent saying that rich people "are wealthy mainly because they know the right people or were born into wealthy families," and 43 percent saying they are wealthy because "of their own hard work, ambition or education."

Suffering the highest levels of unemployment, the nation's young - such as high school and college graduates -- see class conflict significantly more than older people, with 71 percent of people aged 18 to 34 seeing "very strong" or "strong" class conflicts while just 55 percent of people over 65 see them.

Republicans see class conflict less than Democrats and independents, with GOP leaders have dismissed calls to raise taxes on the wealthy, calling it "class warfare." Still, 55 percent of Republicans see "strong" or "very strong" class conflicts in comparison to 73 percent of Democrats and 68 percent of independents.

� 2012, Catholic Online. Distributed by NEWS CONSORTIUM

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Pope Benedict XVI's Prayer Intentions for January 2013
General Intention: The Faith of Christians. That in this Year of Faith Christians may deepen their knowledge of the mystery of Christ and witness joyfully to the gift of faith in him.
Missionary Intention: Middle Eastern Christians. That the Christian communities of the Middle East, often discriminated against, may receive from the Holy Spirit the strength of fidelity and perseverance.

Keywords: Class conflict, Occupy Wall Street, rich and poor, black and white

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1 - 3 of 3 Comments

David Carlon
1 year ago
Capitalism was raped and then murdered by the godless neocon republicans and their godless democrat neoliberal allies... 2 peas in the same queer pod of nihilism, atheism and materialism, who lacking a living faith turned inward to worship self, sin and the world...
James
1 year ago
People don't choose to be rich or poor, as nobody has free will. People don't choose their genes or where they grow up. Both of those factors determine everything about the condition of a person's brain. People aren't responsible for their actions, since people didn't choose their parents or the childhood environment that shaped their neuroanatomy. Whether someone becomes a criminal or a hero is determined by the condition of their brain's frontal lobe. Sam Harris and David Eagleman are two neuroscientists who convincingly argue against the unscientific notion of free will.
abey
1 year ago
What one is seeing is the future social problem, the very word "class differences" does have its essence from the days of Hitlerism, but then the truth is that it culminated in him & beyond to the present, reflecting the very sign to the one in the picture " holding" the truth of the manner "Babylonian system", its ways which GOD hated, clearly mentioned in the Bible & mixed in all those beliefs coming into an explosive state, today. This again proves that GOD is never wrong, .Now with a large percentage of the population especially the democrats of Obama believe it to be class problem, but then what do they do for a solution? They not only try to take away the name of GOD, but gets deeper into those very Babylonian beliefs, initiated by the likes of Hillary & Panetta to the Pagan Philosophies seeking answers, the very opposite of what is to be done, the undoing of the solutions, with the Babylonian Talmud having a role, in its Hatred of Christ, the very solution sent from GOD. These problems which became hidden after the world war, have became manifest from the time of Clinton days. Financially speaking, the Prosperity, instead of conservation through policies, was indulged upon for self gains, resulting in using up the future in the continuation ,such that when the present came, economic famine is seen in disparities, combined with social indulgences, all in the Babylonian ways, ushering it by the day, through the present administration, pretending not to know/putting the blame aside of the net result seen today. The culprit is seen now, tracing it to yesterday & to times before in all its "Avatars".

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