Wednesday, November 10, 2004

Solving the Class Paradox

Phil notes that Bush gained support among higher-income voters; Ruy Teixiera has pointed out the same thing. But Bush also gained among the non-college-educated, but not the college-educated. How can this be? After all, college-educated voters earn more money. How do we solve this paradox?

Maybe we're really looking at an age effect -- many younger voters (who clearly trended to Kerry) are well-educated but lower-income. Bush ran strongly with older voters, many of whom are experiencing their lifetime peak incomes even if they are not as well educated as their younger counterparts.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Static class analysis...fails every time.

Maybe consider the dynamic that many of those who have succeeded understand that character and will were prime components to that success. And many of those who have not yet succeeded understand that such success is within their grasp...over time.