Should govt reduce income differences

eqwlth

Source

General Social Survey https://gss.norc.org

Details

Question 74a. 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?

Overview

For further details see the official GSS documentation.

Counts by year:

year	iap	2	3	4	5	6	don't know	no answer	the government should not concern itself with reducing income differences	the government should reduce income differences	skipped on web	Total
1972	1613	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1613
1973	1504	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1504
1974	1484	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1484
1975	1490	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1490
1976	1499	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1499
1977	1530	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1530
1978	771	82	130	157	81	57	11	3	94	146	-	1532
1980	-	136	238	290	180	106	40	5	227	246	-	1468
1982	1860	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1860
1983	-	171	256	278	177	131	38	3	230	315	-	1599
1984	-	179	223	251	191	117	24	11	171	306	-	1473
1985	1534	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1534
1986	-	130	247	302	160	89	19	3	182	338	-	1470
1987	-	160	307	369	218	103	25	8	221	408	-	1819
1988	484	95	180	197	121	75	21	3	112	193	-	1481
1989	502	132	199	206	116	72	18	2	108	182	-	1537
1990	473	107	157	190	80	56	25	3	93	188	-	1372
1991	500	126	173	200	123	75	27	3	89	201	-	1517
1993	549	122	201	187	130	81	18	4	130	184	-	1606
1994	981	183	322	420	292	167	27	8	303	289	-	2992
1996	979	200	303	409	237	158	45	8	234	331	-	2904
1998	921	181	331	402	213	157	35	7	303	282	-	2832
2000	921	217	294	374	258	160	38	9	245	301	-	2817
2002	1853	84	164	177	125	66	11	1	109	175	-	2765
2004	1936	80	152	168	107	64	10	1	123	171	-	2812
2006	2521	187	320	410	254	149	28	5	221	415	-	4510
2008	658	116	234	240	178	93	15	1	169	319	-	2023
2010	667	106	219	249	215	99	12	6	227	244	-	2044
2012	636	132	194	240	148	84	12	2	202	324	-	1974
2014	851	165	251	284	232	121	15	1	253	365	-	2538
2016	911	248	297	328	255	147	15	5	210	451	-	2867
2018	785	154	272	260	221	119	21	3	166	347	-	2348
2021	1360	242	325	389	249	153	2	-	421	882	9	4032
2022	1173	198	322	337	237	127	12	4	347	783	4	3544
2024	1116	180	294	326	207	120	24	2	335	699	6	3309
Total	34062	4113	6605	7640	5005	2946	588	111	5525	9085	19	75699

Values

• 1 the government should reduce income differences

• 7 the government should not concern itself with reducing income differences

• NA(d) don't know

• NA(i) iap

• NA(j) I don't have a job

• NA(m) dk, na, iap

• NA(n) no answer

• NA(p) not imputable

• NA(r) refused

• NA(s) skipped on web

• NA(u) uncodeable

• NA(x) not available in this release

• NA(y) not available in this year

• NA(z) see codebook