A GALLUP POLL SOCIAL AUDIT
This study is based on a survey of 5,001 American adults, conducted between April 23 and May 31, 1998. The survey was designed to provide a baseline summary of Americans' assessments of their own socioeconomic position, well-being, and satisfaction with various aspects of their lives, and to elicit Americans' perceptions of economic inequality, fairness, and opportunity in the United States today.
The results suggest that about one-quarter of Americans, in one way or another, consider themselves to be have-nots. This one-in-four ratio is seen across a variety of measures. These include designating oneself as a have-not rather than a have, worrying about household finances either "most" or "all" of the time, not having had enough money to pay for basic necessities at some time during the past year, perceiving one's financial situation as being worse than that of one's parents, and labeling one's financial situation as "poor" or "lower income."
Broadly speaking, where historical data are available, answers to self-reported questions such as these do not provide much support for the proposition that Americans perceive a widening gap between haves and have-nots in this country.
The portrait of Americans who are most likely to define themselves as have-nots is straightforward: it includes those with low incomes, those who have lower levels of education, single Americans, those who rent rather than own a house, African American and Hispanic minorities, and those with little personal wealth. Still, large numbers of Americans whose income and wealth place them at the lower end of the economic spectrum in the U.S. resist the have-not label.
At the upper end of the spectrum, there has been a slight increase since 1990 in the number of Americans who consider themselves to be "rich" or "upper income.