America's long held infatuation with hard work might be eating into its understanding of inequality.
A quarter of the country believes the most important reason inequality exists is that some people (ahem, the rich) work harder than other people (the poor), according to a new report by the Pew Research Center.
The proportion of Americans who blame the underprivileged's work ethic for inequality is surprising because it's unusual. Of the 44 countries included in Pew's survey, only two —England and Uganda — were equally as unimpressed with the poor's working habits, and only Nicaragua was found to have a greater percentage of people (31 percentage) who hold that view. In Germany, Israel, and Italy, by comparison, only 10 percent, 7 percent, and 3 percent of the population, respectively, said the main reason an income gap persists is because some people work harder than others.Read more in the Washington Post.
