If Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney expects to win the White House by appealing to middle class Americans, he has a ways to go. But President Barack Obama isn’t exactly a huge hit with the middle class either.
Those are among findings from a http://bit.ly/PhRy6P" target="_blank">national survey released Monday that also found overwhelming majorities of low- and middle-income Americans admire people who got rich through hard work, but 55% of all Americans believe rich people are more likely to be greedy and 58% say the rich don’t pay enough in taxes.
The July 16-26 telephone survey (land-line and cell) of 2,508 adults was conducted by the Pew Research Center. It has a margin of error of 2.8 percentage points either way.
Pew released a separate research report last week on middle class Americans, describing them generally as a shrinking and unhappy lot that lost 28% of its wealth in the first decade of this century; 85% of middle-class Americans told Pew it was getting tougher to maintain their standard of living.
The latest survey found that 63% of all Americans believe the Republican Party favors rich people and 71% of all people surveyed think Romney’s policies will do more to help wealthy people. Democrats are less closely identified with any class, with 35% of the people surveyed saying the Democratic Party favors the middle class, 32% the poor and 20% the wealthy.
A 60% majority said a second Obama term would help the poor; 50% said Obama’s policies would benefit the middle class, compared to 40% saying a Romney presidency would be good for the middle class and 31% who said Romney policies would help the poor.
Other findings:
• Among people who identify themselves as upper class, only 29% say they regularly feel stressed, compared to 37% of the middle class and 58% of lower-class adults. Overall, 23% of Americans said they had trouble making rent or mortgage payments in the past year.
• 43% believe rich people are likely to be more intelligent than average and 42% believe the rich are more likely to be hard-working than average Americans; 92% of self-described middle class Americans and 84% of lower-class Americans admire people who got rich through hard work.
• Two-thirds of self-described Democrats view rich people as greedy; 42% of Republicans agree with that assessment; just 8% of Democrats say rich people are more likely than average Americans to be honest; 18% of Republicans agreed.
• 44% of Republicans say the rich pay their fair share of taxes and 14% say they pay too much; only 13% and 4% of Democrats, respectively, would agree.
• 17% of the survey group identified themselves as upper class, 32% said they were lower or lower-middle class and 49% said they were middle class.
• 53% of the upper class said their standard of living is better than that of their parents. Among the middle class, only 37% agreed with that statement, while for the lower class it was just 25%.
Those are among findings from a http://bit.ly/PhRy6P" target="_blank">national survey released Monday that also found overwhelming majorities of low- and middle-income Americans admire people who got rich through hard work, but 55% of all Americans believe rich people are more likely to be greedy and 58% say the rich don’t pay enough in taxes.
The July 16-26 telephone survey (land-line and cell) of 2,508 adults was conducted by the Pew Research Center. It has a margin of error of 2.8 percentage points either way.
Pew released a separate research report last week on middle class Americans, describing them generally as a shrinking and unhappy lot that lost 28% of its wealth in the first decade of this century; 85% of middle-class Americans told Pew it was getting tougher to maintain their standard of living.
The latest survey found that 63% of all Americans believe the Republican Party favors rich people and 71% of all people surveyed think Romney’s policies will do more to help wealthy people. Democrats are less closely identified with any class, with 35% of the people surveyed saying the Democratic Party favors the middle class, 32% the poor and 20% the wealthy.
A 60% majority said a second Obama term would help the poor; 50% said Obama’s policies would benefit the middle class, compared to 40% saying a Romney presidency would be good for the middle class and 31% who said Romney policies would help the poor.
Other findings:
• Among people who identify themselves as upper class, only 29% say they regularly feel stressed, compared to 37% of the middle class and 58% of lower-class adults. Overall, 23% of Americans said they had trouble making rent or mortgage payments in the past year.
• 43% believe rich people are likely to be more intelligent than average and 42% believe the rich are more likely to be hard-working than average Americans; 92% of self-described middle class Americans and 84% of lower-class Americans admire people who got rich through hard work.
• Two-thirds of self-described Democrats view rich people as greedy; 42% of Republicans agree with that assessment; just 8% of Democrats say rich people are more likely than average Americans to be honest; 18% of Republicans agreed.
• 44% of Republicans say the rich pay their fair share of taxes and 14% say they pay too much; only 13% and 4% of Democrats, respectively, would agree.
• 17% of the survey group identified themselves as upper class, 32% said they were lower or lower-middle class and 49% said they were middle class.
• 53% of the upper class said their standard of living is better than that of their parents. Among the middle class, only 37% agreed with that statement, while for the lower class it was just 25%.