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GSS 7-point scale: 1 = government ought to reduce income differences between rich and poor, 7 = it should not concern itself.
Latest: 32% answered “Should not (5-7)” in GSS, 2024.
Dashed lines mark changes in how interviews were done, which can shift answers: 1. GSS → web (2021).
Shares of people whose answer maps onto these categories (non-answers and answers outside the scale are left out), because surveys differ in whether they offer “don’t know.” Each column is one survey wave, evenly spaced rather than to scale in time; hover for exact shares.
Dashed lines mark changes in how interviews were done, which can shift answers: 1. GSS → web (2021).
Shares of people whose answer maps onto these categories (non-answers and answers outside the scale are left out), because surveys differ in whether they offer “don’t know.” Each point is one survey wave at the middle of its field period. Lines from different surveys are never spliced together.
Groups differ from everyone by 12 points on average across all answers.
| Line | Question | Match | How answers map |
|---|---|---|---|
| GSS | Should government reduce income differences A. Some people think that the government in Washington ought to reduce the income differences between the rich and the poor, perhaps by raising the taxes of wealthy families or by giving income assistance to the poor. Others think that the government should not concern itself with reducing this income difference between the rich and the poor. Here is a card with a scale from 1 to 7. Think of a score of 1 as meaning that the government ought to reduce the income differences between rich and poor, and a score of 7 meaning that the government should not concern itself with reducing income differences. What score between 1 and 7 comes closest to the way you feel? (CIRCLE ONE): | identical | The government should reduce income differences → Should reduce (1-3); 2 → Should reduce (1-3); 3 → Should reduce (1-3); 4 → Middle (4); 5 → Should not (5-7); 6 → Should not (5-7); The government should not concern itself with reducing income differences → Should not (5-7) |
Dashed lines mark changes in how interviews were done, which can shift answers: 1. GSS → web (2021).
Groups differ from everyone by 7 points on average across all answers.
Dashed lines mark changes in how interviews were done, which can shift answers: 1. GSS → web (2021).
Subgroup charts are picked automatically. Of every breakdown in the data (party, ideology, age, sex, race, education, income, region, religion, and community type), these two put their groups furthest from everyone’s answers: the gap is averaged across all answer categories and waves, with each group weighted by its share of respondents. Party and ideology count as one choice, so the second chart shows a different kind of split. Groups with an effective sample under 50 in a wave are left out of that wave.