More equal than others

The past three decades have seen a momentous shift: The rich became vastly richer while working-class wages stagnated. Economists say 80 per cent of net income gains since 1980 went to people in the top 1 per cent of the income distribution, boosting their share of total income to levels unseen since before the Great Depression8230;

The Census Bureau has tracked the economic fortunes of affluent, middle-class and poor American families for six decades. The real incomes of middle-class families grew more than twice as fast under Democratic presidents as they did under Republican presidents. Even more remarkable, the real incomes of working-poor families at the 20th percentile of the income distribution grew six times as fast when Democrats held the White House. Only the incomes of affluent families were relatively impervious to partisan politics, growing robustly under Democrats and Republicans alike8230;

If middle-class and poor people do so much better under Democratic presidents than under Republican presidents, why do so many of them vote for Republicans? One popular answer, advanced by Thomas Frank and others, is that they are alienated by Democratic liberalism on cultural issues like abortion, gay marriage and gender roles8230; A better explanation for Republican electoral successes may be that while most voters, rich and poor alike, do vote with their economic interests in mind, they construe those interests in a curiously myopic way8230; And while Republicans have presided over dismal income growth for middle-class and poor families in most years, they have, remarkably enough, produced robust growth in election years.

This year looks unusual in this respect.

Excerpted from Larry M Bartel8217;s 8216;Inequalities8217; in the New York Times Magazine, April 27