Rich, poor conflict on rise in US: Poll

Two-thirds of Americans say that the divide between rich and poor is now the greatest source of conflict in the US society, causing more divergence than immigration, race and age, a new survey shows.

The survey released by the Pew Research Center on Wednesday, revealed that tensions over the wealth divide in the US were at the highest level for a quarter of a century.

Researchers found thirty percent of Americans feel there are very strong conflicts between the poor and the rich Americans, while 36 percent of respondents say there are “strong” conflicts among rich and poor.

Meanwhile, a slightly smaller share of Americans, 62 percent, believes there is a similar level of conflict between immigration and native born American.

In a similar survey conducted in 2009, Americans considered immigration the most significant source of social conflict, when 47 percent observed strong tension between classes,

The new survey showed that an even a smaller number of Americans, 38 percent, believe there is a conflict between different races in the US, while 34 percent said such issue exists between the young and old.

The new findings comes while America’s top 1 percent of the population saw their incomes skyrocket by 275 percent between 1979 and 2007, while the bottom fifth of earners experienced just a 20 percent rise in income, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

The overall US awareness of class conflict has grown significantly recently, mainly due to the Occupy Wall Street movement, which has seized upon the issue.

The Occupy Wall Street (OWS) protests against poverty, high unemployment and economic inequality spread from a single camp in New York City on September 17 to hundreds of cities across the US.