---
title: "Is Laziness the Cause of Economic Inequality?"
description: "When offered the chance to choose one out of six different causes for inequality -- government economic policies, workers' pay, the educational system, trade, the tax system and the poor's work ethic -- people around the world generally agree that the gap between the rich and the poor is a product of failed government policies and inadequate wages."
date: "2014-10-22"
authors:
  - name: "No Author"
url: "https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2014/10/22/is-laziness-the-cause-of-economic-inequality/"
---

# Is Laziness the Cause of Economic Inequality?

*By Bruce Stokes, Director of Economic Attitudes, Pew Research Center*

*Special to [Foreign Policy](http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2014/10/22/inequality_europe_IMF_pew_eurocrisis_economy)*

Once, laments over economic inequality were the sole purview of the left. But now the growing gap between the rich and the poor is a mainstream concern. "The distribution of income and wealth in the United States has been widening more or less steadily for several decades, to a greater extent than in most advanced countries," Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen observed in a speech on October 17. And "I think it is appropriate to ask whether this trend is compatible with values rooted in our nation's history.

In a recent report, titled "Redistribution, Inequality and Growth," the [International Monetary Fund](http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/sdn/2014/sdn1402.pdf) (IMF) contended that economic inequality is an enemy of growth. And in his state of the union [address](http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/01/28/president-barack-obamas-state-union-address) earlier this year, President Barack Obama acknowledged that, despite four straight years of economic growth, inequality in the United States has deepened. Now, a new Pew Research [Center](https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2014/10/09/emerging-and-developing-economies-much-more-optimistic-than-rich-countries-about-the-future/) survey of the citizens in 44 countries has found that a median of 60 percent -- including 46 percent of Americans -- say inequality is a* *very big problem in their respective societies.

*Read more at* *[Foreign Policy](http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2014/10/22/inequality_europe_IMF_pew_eurocrisis_economy)*