Political affiliation and household income

[mawilson 2,133]

I've noticed that many left or liberal leaning members here struggle financially, while

those who are well-off tend to be more conservative.

Is this a correct observation? Does a rise in income generally increase the likelihood

of a person voting Republican?

What do you think?

[KarenCee 3]

Interesting idea Mark! What brought this up (just curious)?

[Alex+R 0]

There are actual statistics on this but a preliminary google search didn't turn it up. Being more educated makes one more likely to lean left but I believe large income makes one more likely to lean right. I can't remember exactly though.

[mawilson 2,133]

Interesting idea Mark! What brought this up (just curious)?

Not sure -- I've been meaning to ask this question for a long time but needed

more empirical evidence to back up my claim.

[Jenn! 918]

Totally correct. Money makes you greedy, being greedy makes you a republican.

Edited March 3, 2007 by jenn3539

[Cassie 8]

what about the ones that are down the middle?

[Mags 112]

I was talking about this to hubby only a couple of days ago. I was talking about the UK Political System and trying to describe the type of person who voted for each party.

All I could come up with was that the Labour Party was working class and the Conservative Party tended to be more middle and upper class. I'm not very up to date with Politics...as you can tell.

[Caladan 19]

Being highly educated swings you liberal; being very wealthy tends to swing you conservative. Neither fully determines it, and there's a hell of a lot of credit card debt out in the suburban districts voting Republican for sound fiscal management to be a Republican trait.

I'm left-leaning and my credit is perfect, and my bank balance is fine. My sister is a thorough rightwing nutjob living in public housing with $50,000 in debt. Same family, too, so I'm guessing it's probably a wash.

[mawilson 2,133]

Very interesting -- keep it coming, guys!

[Cassie 8]

what about the ones that are down the middle?

I'm serious about this question! What about those that would vote independant? because seriously, if I had the privilege to vote in this country, I really can't see myself voting either Republican or Democratic because I don't fit nice and neat on either side.

For the record, in Canada I struggled financially and voted Conservative party. Here in the US my husband and I are doing ok with money (focusing on a budget, eliminating credit card debt and being smart with our investments is our current plan) and I personally would have voted Democratic in the last state governor election and Independant in the federal election if there had been an viable option. Not sure what that says about me.

[Sofiyya 1,687]

No comment

[Nancy2015 2]

I'd say, if you have a lot of money, you would likely be more conservative. However, I know very poor people who are right-wingers. And I agree that highly educated people tend to be more leftist, but there's plenty of educated right-wingers as well...

All in all, I think there's no correlation

[bostonparis 0]

I'm registered independent. I don't vote along party lines, because I think that's what gets us into a boatload of trouble. I try (TRY) to vote on issues, and prioritize. Sometimes I'm wrong, and when the person I've voted for is in office and screwing up royally, I kick myself. So I try and educate myself the best I can before voting. But sometimes you just don't know how a person will act once in office.

[Alex+R 0]

If I wanted to vote on the issues, I'd have to vote Green Party the majority of the time. That's not too practical. You get people like me generally voting for Democrats (begrudgingly) as well.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Hmm. I don't know. Like Alex said, there is polling data on this. Part of the problem with the polling is that it treats all educated people equally and makes no distinction between those with educations that make them highly marketable (say an MBA from Sterns or a BS in Comp Sci from Carnegie) vs the rest. I remember college... Economics and English were the most popular majors, followed closely by Art History. The grads who made the most money (on average) majored in significantly less popular majors such as Finance, Computer Science, Mathematics. Extreme numbers skew the averages, as we all know well by now.

And now to get more personal. My situation. Our household income buys us a townhouse about 30 miles from Manhattan. It buys us two compact economy cars and a little money left over to eat out once in a while, all the while saving approx 10% in our 401Ks and another 10% in savings. Should we be Democrats or Republican? I am Republican when I hear Dems talk about raising my taxes. I won't be able to freaking retire if they keep raising my taxes. I am Democratic when I hear about people who lost their homes because they fell behind on payments due to health crises. I worry about it all, because they're both very 'real' possibilities. So what am I? I am your mixed-ballot freak, the guy who confounds all the pollsters trying oh so hard to crowd us all into two neat schools of thought.

Edited March 3, 2007 by Gupt