Getting Ahead through Our Own Efforts: Public Attitudes towards the Deservingness of the Rich in New Zealand

Abstract

The high level of academic, public and policy attention paid to the deservingness of the poor and (especially) of welfare recipients contrasts with the scant attention paid to the deservingness – or otherwise – of the rich. This discrepancy reflects socially dominant – but contestable – ideas about equality of opportunity and the role of individual merit within market systems. In this journal, Karen Rowlingson, Stewart Connor and Michael Orton have noted that wealth and riches have remained invisible as policy ‘problems’. This invisibility is socially important, in that policy efforts to address current, socially damaging, levels of economic inequality require attention to the deservingness of the rich, as well as of the poor. This article draws on recent survey data from New Zealand to provide new insights into public attitudes to the rich. It finds that the New Zealand public view the rich as more individually deserving of their outcomes than the poor are deserving of social assistance, and that attitudes towards the rich are related to redistributive sentiments at least as strongly as attitudes towards the poor. In concluding, the article reflects on the limitations of existing data sources and makes suggestions for future research.

Accounting for the “working poor”: analysing the living wage debate in Aotearoa New Zealand

“…As noted by Collison et al (2010), this emerging consensus on the dangers of high levels of inequality (Humpage, 2014; Skilling and McLay, 2015) has not translated into support for potential public policies that promise to reduce inequality – especially if those redistributive policies are linked to an increase in taxation (Humpage, 2008; Taylor-Gooby, 2013). Given this limited appetite for addressing inequalities through political re-distribution, some commentators (Wade, 2013) and politicians (see van den Heuvel, 2012) have argued instead for a focus on pre-distribution: a focus on how the market distributes earnings amongst its various participants “before” taxes and transfers.…”

Social Policy Perspectives on Economic Inequality in Wealthy Countries

“…Analyses of post‐fiscal income additionally accounts for government transfers and tax credit/liabilities (Gornick & Smeeding, ), and are better suited for studying the impacts of redistributive policies. Skilling and McLay () note that public and policy attention is less focused on wealth (and the wealthy) than on income (and the poor). Indeed, only a handful of scholars in our sample of policy‐oriented literature focus on changes to wealth inequality…”

“…They suggest that these criteria can be used to better understand social policy decisions that are likely to influence economic inequality, especially taxation policy. Building on similar foundations, Skilling and McLay () find that the New Zealand public considers the rich more deserving of wealth‐related outcomes than the poor are of social assistance. They also find an association between attitudes toward redistribution and judgments about the deservingness of both groups (rich and poor).…”

Weakly institutionalized, heavily contested: Does support for contemporary welfare reforms rely on norms of distributive justice?

“…Means-tested benefits are implemented in many different forms, but the most important distinction is between benefits based on resource tests that restrict access to those in poverty and based on affluence tests that exclude the well-off (Sainsbury and Morissens, 2002). We focus particularly on the former, as discussions on the deservingness of the poor have generally been more salient and politicized than debates about the wealthy (Skilling and McLay, 2015). These types of means-tested benefits target low-income households and aim to offer poverty relief by implementing vertical redistribution (Marx et al, 2016).…”