Where would Bernie Sanders fare better, France or the US?

Anyone with an eye on what’s driving voters in 2106 should take a look at the latest Wall Street Journal/NBC and April Gallup polling on income and mobility.

{mosads}Instinctively, many assume that wealth redistribution would rank highest in popularity with the electorate. The April Gallup poll found a large majority of Americans (63 percent) believe money and wealth should be more evenly distributed and only about a third (31 percent) believe that it’s fair today. But that’s just one part of the equation. More surprising, at least for me, is that that same month the poll found that by an overwhelming majority (68 percent to 28 percent), Americans are more interested in having a fair shot at achieving the American dream as opposed to government redistributing wealth from one bracket to the other. Even more interesting is the fact that this sentiment remains consistent across party lines, ideologies and demographics, including those solidly locked in the Democratic base. When it comes to income inequality, most Americans want a bigger pie, not bigger government tinkering with the scales.

This presents a true challenge for presidential aspirant Bernie Sanders (I), senator from Vermont, whose populist drumbeat for many years has made him one of the greatest champions of wealth redistribution and a critic of American capitalism.

Would Sanders fare better in European countries where wealth taxes are seemingly more popular? Consider the old parable of the French farmer who has one cow; his neighbor has three. The farmer is jealous and believes that justice requires that he should receive one of his neighbor’s cows so they both have two, consistent with traditional European egalitarianism. Conversely, the American farmer sees his neighbor’s three cows and applauds his success, saying, “If my neighbor can do it, so can I, but I am going to earn five cows.”

But even longheld European traditions seem to be changing, especially on income inequality. For instance, a survey last fall by Pew Research Center compiled some fascinating data on income inequality among 44 economies broken down into three broad categories: advanced, emerging and developing countries.

When it comes to the countries that see inequality as a major challenge, economically embattled Greece leads among advanced nations with 84 percent of respondents saying inequality is a major challenge. Seventy-two percent of South Africans also say inequality is a major challenge. Sixty percent of French and roughly half of both U.S. and Russian respondents agree. Israel and the Palestinian territory see eye to eye, with 57 percent of both countries viewing inequality as a major challenge.

Pew notes that across the board, most people in advanced, emerging and developing markets agree that inequality is simply part of the deal in a free-market system and that it still leaves people better off than alternatives.

On the question of how other problems stack against income inequality, 56 percent of advanced countries find the rich-poor gap to be a problem, but again, surprisingly, not as big as the public debt. Sixty percent of both emerging and developing countries find the rich-poor gap to be a big problem, but are equally concerned about the public debt and by a much greater margin are more concerned about lack of employment and rising prices.

Pew’s most stunning finding is on global attitudes on policy solutions to reduce income inequality, saying that pluralities or majorities in 22 of 44 countries believe in lower taxes on the wealthy and corporations to stimulate investment and economic growth, as opposed to higher taxes on the wealthy for wealth redistribution.

Among advanced countries, Italy (68 percent), France (61 percent) and Greece (50 percent) agree with lowering taxes, compared to only 38 percent of Americans.

In emerging countries, Brazil (77 percent), Argentina (60 percent), Vietnam (60 percent) concur that lowering taxes is best way to tackle income inequality.

In developing countries, Uganda (64 percent), Ghana (57 percent), Kenya (52 percent) and Palestinian territory (45 percent) also prefer lowering taxes.

Interestingly, median support for lowering taxes on the wealthy and corporations ranked higher in developing economies, at 45 percent, than it did in emerging and advanced economies, both at 40 percent.

This phenomenon carries over into support for the free-market system, where developing nations overwhelmingly agree that people are better off in a free-market economy. Economies including Bangladesh (80 percent), Ghana (75 percent) and Kenya (74 percent). South Africa (68 percent) is nearly statistically tied with the U.S. (70 percent) in support of the free market.

In other words, American cow farmers aren’t likely to vote for Bernie Sanders, but neither are French cow farmers. Ironically, he would fare even worse in developing countries, where wealth redistribution is even more soundly rejected in favor of growing a bigger pie.

Bloomfield is president and CEO of the American Council for Capital Formation and his spouse is a lovely French woman. He is on Twitter @MrCapitalGains.