Marxism may be dead, but lefty activists still seem to itch for some good old-fashioned class warfare. With rising inequality in America (see this New York Times article from 2006), it’s easy to understand why. But Marxist cynicism is, I think, exactly the wrong way to look at inequality.

We often assume that people vote with their wallets: whoever can can line my pocket gets my vote. But a funny thing is happening in America: the rich are increasingly voting Democratic, the party of progressive taxation. That is to say, wealthy Americans are increasingly voting against their own financial interests.

Fretting about the future of the Republican party in the face of vast American equality in the New York Times Magazine, David Frum casually mentions that the more unequal a place is, the more Democratic it tends to vote; the more equal, the more Republican. He dallies around with many possible reasons for this — an extreme Republican social agenda, disdain for good governance — but ignores the possibility that equality is, itself, might be core value that people — even Americans — cherish.

It seems there are better (and less expensive) ways for rich people to buy off their guilt than support progressive taxation. So I’m left to conclude that, once a person’s financial needs are more than comfortably taken care of, s/he turns to less tangible interests like self-fulfillment. (This is something advertisers have understood quite well with luxury brands). And it heartens me to find that people really do care about each other’s welfare. At least, when they can see each other.

So it strikes me that we care about closing the wealth and income gap in America, class warfare is not the way to go. We care about our fellow Americans — but only, it appears, when we can see them. If we want to close the income gap, we ought to look into closing the empathy gap between the rich and the poor.

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