The correlation between net worth (wealth), age, and political conservatism...

[All Along The Watchtower]

Take a look at this:

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Source:http://www.bargaineering.com/articles/median-net-worth-age.html (original source was a Pew Research Center report).

Clearly, there is a big generational divide between the older and middle-aged population and the younger population, in terms of wealth/net worth.

It's been well-established that the older generations of Americans are more conservative than younger generations on cultural issues like gay marriage or marijuana legalization. Less examined, however, is the  relationship between political conservatism, age, and wealth. And if you look at factors like race and gender-whites are wealthier, as a group and on average, than blacks and Latinos (and Asians, too, IIRC, though Asian-Americans have higher median income), men are wealthier than women, and older Americans are slightly wealthier than middle-aged Americans, and much wealthier than younger Americans.

Sorry if this is old information to some of you, but I think the main point is this: having financial assets and wealth is a very solid predictor of (at least economic) conservatism in politics. The fact that there's also a generational divide between conservatives and liberals on cultural issues perhaps helps explain at least some of the political polarization of the parties nowadays, no?

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Tuition has close to tripled in real dollars during that time period, so that is definitely making youngs poorer.

[Torie]

To make your case you really need to look at political ideology across income/wealth levels with each cohort of voters. I mean the rap is that poor whites are much more conservative these days than in the past, no?  Meanwhile, high paid government workers, and Hollywood, and folks with graduate degrees, and lawyers and doctors, have moved left. Heck when I go to legal conventions, the place is packed with "liberals"  as it were.

[DC Al Fine]

Do you have a breakdown by race and age? It would be interesting to examine whether the young/old gap is more reflective of younger people getting poorer or younger people getting less white.

[Grumpier Than Thou]

It is a well established fact that the American brand of Capitalism sees to it that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.

[All Along The Watchtower]

To make your case you really need to look at political ideology across income/wealth levels with each cohort of voters. I mean the rap is that poor whites are much more conservative these days than in the past, no?  Meanwhile, high paid government workers, and Hollywood, and folks with graduate degrees, and lawyers and doctors, have moved left. Heck when I go to legal conventions, the place is packed with "liberals"  as it were.

I don't think poor whites are much more conservative than in the past. I think a lot of them have stopped participating in the political process altogether-which would help explain why the Democratic Party has declined in fortunes among this formerly (overall) solidly Democratic constituency.  

Now, whites of relatively average (Lower-middle-class) means have certainly moved to the Right, but that can be explained, in part, by the decline of unionization in the American (white) working class. Some of the formerly poor or lower-middle-class white evangelicals have also made relatively large gains in income, education, wealth, and overall socioeconomic status, particularly those in the emerging suburbs around the country (especially the Sun Belt). Same with many formerly working-class white Catholics (another formerly Democratic constituency). There are plenty of solidly middle-class (and some upper-middle class) white evangelicals and white Catholics (I leave out white mainline Protestants here because they are an ancestrally Republican group that has moved in the other direction, if anything. )

And it's true that certain subgroups of wealthy and/or well-educated  Americans are more liberal than in the past, but a part does not make up a whole.

[Mr. Morden]

As usual, Andrew Gelman has the answers on this:

http://andrewgelman.com/2012/06/20/reconciling-different-claims-about-working-class-voters/

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[All Along The Watchtower]

As usual, Andrew Gelman has the answers on this:

http://andrewgelman.com/2012/06/20/reconciling-different-claims-about-working-class-voters/

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Self-bump.

Andrew Gelman has done a lot of great work on the complexities and nuances of the correlation between income and political conservatism in America. However, I am actually more interested in the correlation between net worth(wealth) and political conservatism.

There are a lot of relatively low-income older Americans who have higher-than-average net worth. Presumably, most of those people are pretty conservative. Conversely, there are a good deal of high-income but low-net worth younger people (think the yuppie stereotype in many cities) who, I'd imagine, would be considerably more liberal (at least, on social issues ) in their outlook, no?

From what Gelman has said, it seems to me that the "Culture Wars" are occurring mainly in the middle and upper classes. This makes sense, because it follows the phenomenon of "post-materialism" where more financially stable people vote based on personal moral values, rather than economic self-interest.