U.S. elites trust government more, like freedom less than average Americans: poll

Conservative icon William F. Buckley Jr. famously said he’d rather be governed by the first 2,000 names in the Boston phone book than the Harvard faculty, and a newly published survey points to why.

A first-of-its-kind poll released by the free-market Committee to Unleash Prosperity found an enormous gap between everyday Americans and members of the so-called elite when it comes to finances, individual freedom, climate change, education and President Biden.

The survey interviewed earlier this month 1,000 members of the “elite,” which the survey defined as the 1% of Americans who met three criteria — holding postgraduate degrees, having annual household incomes of more than $150,000, and living in a high-density ZIP code with more than 10,000 people per square mile.

One big difference between this 1% and the other 99%: personal finances. Three-quarters of the elites said their economic picture has improved “these days” versus 20% of U.S. voters overall. Among Ivy League graduates, 88% said they are better off financially.

“This may explain why the media, academics, and high-income Americans tend to rate the economy as good while most Americans say the economy is bad,” said the report titled “Them vs. U.S.: The Two Americas and How the Nation’s Elite Is Out of Touch with Average Americans.”

When it comes to individual freedom, 57% of all U.S. adults said the nation provides “too much government control,” while 47% of elites and 55% of Ivy League grads said “too much freedom.”

The elites were also more willing to accept rationing of energy and food to address climate change.

“An astonishing 77% of the Elites — including nearly 90% of the Elites who graduated from the top universities — favor rationing of energy, gas, and meat to combat climate change,” the report said. “Among all Americans, 63% oppose this policy.”

More than two-thirds, or 70%, of elites said they would be willing to pay $500 or more annually to curtail climate change, while 72% of voters overall said they would only be willing to fork over $100 or less.

That’s not all; the elites are also much more willing to curb lifestyles and consumer convenience.

A majority of elites would be willing to ban gas-powered cars, gas stoves, “non-essential air travel,” SUVs and private air conditioning in the name of fighting global warming. No more than 25% of Americans overall surveyed favored any of those bans.

Elites were more trusting of the government, with 70% having confidence in its ability to “do the right thing most of the time” versus 30% of the public at large. They also have a more favorable opinion of lawyers, journalists, union leaders and members of Congress.

The upper crust placed more faith in the education establishment, with 67% saying they would prefer a candidate who says teachers and educators “should decide what students are taught,” versus 38% of the overall public that shares that view.

The gap tends to the voting booth and the White House too. The elites gave Mr. Biden a robust 84% approval rating versus 44% of voters overall.

“The people who think they run the country don’t think the same things about issues like individual freedom, climate change and whether the government can be trusted,” said committee co-founder Stephen Moore. “To understand that is to understand the divide in contemporary American politics.”

The survey conducted by pollster Scott Rasmussen polled two separate groups of elites from Sept. 11-26 and Sept. 14-29. Most, or 73%, of the elites surveyed were Democrats, while 14% were Republicans.