Very interesting survey -Britons favour state responsibilities over individualism

[malaise]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2013/apr/14/britons-sympathetic-unemployed-france-germany
<snip>

Britons are less inclined than the French to regard the workless as indulged, readier than the Germans to pay taxes to help them, and decidedly less relaxed about top salaries than the Americans, according to a major transnational study by the academic thinktank YouGov-Cambridge, which put identical questions to voters across four democracies at the same time.

Again, Britain emerges as a strikingly un-Thatcherite country. The majority for that proposition in the UK is 35 points (54% to 19% against), compared with 26 points in France (63%-37%), 23 points in the US (52%-29%) and a much more marginal two points in Germany, where 36% are in favour of this New-Deal-style pitch and 34% against. Perhaps the perception that German pockets are already being picked to subsidise southern Europeans who have hit hard times is taking its toll on willingness to contribute towards support for the poor at home.

Progressive Americans, by contrast, will be heartened to learn that the legacy of Franklin Roosevelt is not dead – but shocked by the underlying party divide. Whereas Democrats split 75% to 8% in favour of using tax-financed services to smooth the recession's rough edges, Republicans are heavily against, by 59% to 24%.
Attitudes survey 2

It is not just government tax policy, but also company pay policy that has a bearing on people getting filthy rich. As a final test of whether opinion across the four democracies shares Peter Mandelson's intense relaxation about this, YouGov-Cambridge asked respondents for their views on a top earner, such as a boss in a big company, earning 20 times as much as a low-wage worker, with the monetary values expressed in local currencies, so the respective wages at the two ends of the spectrum were, for example, an annual £300,000 and £15,000 in the UK. America's traditional image as a land that celebrates economic success shines through, with a clear majority of 53% believing that this sort of top wage is either acceptable (44%) or too low (9%), as against just 31% who believe that top salaries of $400,000 are excessive.

[enlightenment]

1. Makes me want to build a time machine

go back to 1830, and cause a terrible and tremendous rift between Horatio (Sr) and Olive Alger. With any luck, they would never have Horatio, junior - and so his entire series of "boy makes good" claptrap would never be written . . .

and we wouldn't be stuck with this ridiculous fantasy that anyone who works hard enough can be the next Carnegie (or Bill Gates).

[malaise]

2. Profound comment

[bananas]

3. kr nt

[Recursion]

4. It's not the $400K salaries that worry me

It's the $40,000,000 bonus packages.

[malaise]

5. Both worry me