Memo: Voters Think the Existing Economic Order is Stacked Against Workers
By Kelsey Wright and Ethan Winter
Executive Summary
Voters think that Americans want to work and that structural unemployment causes high unemployment, supporting this idea by a margin of 21 percentage points.
Sixty-eight percent of voters, including 58 percent of Republicans, agree that most people living in poverty are poor because of low wages and limited opportunities, not because of individual choices.
The majority of voters think that the existing economic order is unfair. For example, by a margin of 48 percentage points, voters think the economic system favors the wealthy and powerful.
Unemployment has skyrocketed due to the coronavirus pandemic and its economic fallout, with 38.6 million jobless claims filed in the past nine weeks. Food insecurity is significantly higher than at any time in the past twenty years, and many Americans may be falling into poverty.
As lawmakers consider additional economic stimulus to help the economy and labor force recover, it is important for them to understand voters’ opinions on unemployment, poverty, and the structure of the economy more generally. It allows lawmakers to fashion policies that are in line with public opinion. For progressives, it points to potentially useful rhetorical strategies for advancing their causes.
