Inequality, Crime, and Income Redistribution in Western Europe

The rise of economic inequality in the West has had detrimental effects on the poor and middle classes. The loss of job prospects, disappearing upward economic mobility, and political apathy have all combined to give the less fortunate of society a bleak view of the future.

This has not gone unnoticed by the beneficiaries of this rising inequality. As an August, 2015, study by European political scientists David Rueda and Daniel Stegmueller shows, the more unequal is their society, the more the wealthiest in Western Europe endorse redistribution of wealth.

[R]ueda and Stegmueller analyzed data from the European Social Survey to reach their conclusions. The data was collected in Western Europe from 2002- 2009, a “period of relative economic calm,” according to the authors.

The data showed that the question of redistribution generally broke down along class lines. Those in the upper economic classes (the rich) were less likely than the lower classes to support the redistribution of wealth as a whole.

The support changed relative to the socio-economic surroundings of the wealthy survey participants. The data showed that wealthy Western Europeans in more unequal societies in the subcontinent supported redistribution more than their counterparts in more equal societies.

Why was this?

The authors believe the answer can be found in correlative data.

[R]udea and Stegmueller discovered that the wealthy in Western European societies with the highest levels of income inequality fear crime more than their counterparts in more equal societies. This is logical- higher levels of inequality breed correspondingly high levels of desperation in the dispossessed.

This doesn’t require any further in-depth analysis. The conclusion is quite clear given the factors and data.

The wealthiest classes of people in societies with the highest levels of inequality will, once the social costs of that inequality becomes obvious, support the redistribution of wealth as a matter of personal safety and survival. It’s pure self interest.

Rueda and Stegmueller are working on a similar study for the 50 US states. Preliminary data indicates those findings will be similar to their work in Western Europe.