A majority of Americans - 54 per cent, according to a Pew Research Center poll last year - favour raising taxes on the wealthy to expand programs for the poor.
The problem with this, from a policy standpoint, is that nearly everybody thinks "rich people" are those who make more money than they do - no matter how much they actually make, according to a Brookings Institution report.
Between 2008 and 2014, the number of Americans who defined themselves as "upper class" hovered between 1 and 2 per cent.
Over the same period, the number who called themselves "middle class" fell from 53 to 44 per cent, while the share calling themselves "lower class" doubled from 6 to 12 per cent.
This was presumably the recession's effects in action, as households felt the pinch of falling wages and disappearing jobs.