Poll: 43 percent agree with views of "Occupy Wall Street"

CBS News

Forty-three percent of Americans agree with the views of the "Occupy Wall Street" movement, according to a new CBS News/New York Times poll that found a widespread belief that money and wealth should be distributed more evenly in America.

Twenty-seven percent of Americans said they disagree with the movement, which began more than a month ago in lower Manhattan and has since spread across the country and around the world. Thirty percent said they were unsure.

Riot police arrest "Occupy Oakland" protesters

Young and left-leaning Americans were more likely to agree with the movement than were their older and more conservative counterparts. Half of Americans ages 18-29 say they agree with the movement; just one in three Americans age 65 or older say the same. And two thirds of liberals say they agree with "Occupy Wall Street" compared with just one in four conservatives.

Americans with at least some college education are more likely to agree with the movement than those with less education. Nearly half of those with at least some college education say they agree with "Occupy Wall Street"; among those who did not attend college, that figure drops to 37 percent.

Seven in ten Americans say they have heard or read at least something about "Occupy Wall Street."

While there are different agendas within the "Occupy Wall Street" movement, nearly all of the protesters say that wealth has become too concentrated among a relatively small group of Americans. The poll found that most Americans agree with that assessment: Two in three say that wealth is not distributed as equitably as it should be, while just one in four says wealth is distributed fairly.

Republicans were far more likely than Democrats or independents to say the current distribution of income is fair. Fifty-five percent of Republicans say the current distribution is fair, compared to just seven percent of Democrats; 86 percent of Democrats, 67 percent of independents and 36 percent of Republicans say wealth should be distributed more evenly.

CBS News

Forty-six percent of Americans say "Occupy Wall Street" represents the views of most Americans, compared to 34 percent who say it does not. Asked specifically what they think about "Occupy Wall Street" as a movement - as opposed to the ideas behind it - Americans were more reticent to offer an opinion: 25 percent said they had a favorable impression of the movement, 20 percent said they have an unfavorable impression, and 53 percent said they were undecided or haven't heard enough.

More from the poll:

Poll: Americans say no one has good jobs plan

Only 9% approve of Congress, says CBS/NYT poll

Herman Cain tops Mitt Romney in latest CBS/NYT poll

Read the complete poll

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This poll was conducted among a random sample of 1,650 adults nationwide, interviewed by telephone October 19-24, 2011. Phone numbers were dialed from random digit dial samples of both standard land-line and cell phones. The error due to sampling for results based on the entire sample could be plus or minus three percentage points. The error for subgroups is higher. An oversample was conducted for this survey which will be analyzed in a future poll release.

This poll release conforms to the Standards of Disclosure of the National Council on Public Polls.

[noloyalisti]

That is a lot of people that realize what damage the Top 1% has done to America. In a country where 1 in 6 live in poverty and almost 1/3 of our kids live in poverty, there are more millionaires and billionaires than ever. And they have completely corrupted the political system. The Occuoy Together 99% Movement is our last hope and I think most people either admit this or feel this.

[expatriate2]

The height of hypocricy is shown by some here who condemn those who exercise a Constitutional right while thumping their own chests and proclaiming to be "tax paying" true Americans. I don't look at the 47% approving the protests even while the hypocrites prove their faulty math by proclaiming that 53% oppose it while the truth (something with which they have only a nodding acquaintance)is that 47 of every 77 persons having an opinion about the protests support it. That is really 61% of those having an opinion.

[dantom39]

Gotta love the crime and rapes coming from the OWS opps cant say that on liberal sites.

[expatriate2]

Didn't do so well in science, right? The first rule is never to judge the species by the specimen.

[dantom39]

Pelosi.s protesters in Oakland Young Peaceful wonderful people just having a great time setting the place on fire with love from the media.

[tvwatcher5345]

jesus was arrested after he threw out the money changers, and paul revere was arrested on his famous ride to warn the colonists, God Bless the occupyers

[dantom39]

Michael Moore just there he must go home and laugh his as s off at how stupid those fools are he is a 1per center whom they are protesting

[OWS_Movement]

The OWS movement has collected over $400,000 from members, and is now trying to prevent the homeless from eating at their rallies. See the collection and amounts and other figures at my website. http://www.antimsmnews.blogspot.com
Its easy for the movement to eat delicious 5 Star chef prepared meals, while the real needy starve.

Why not Occupy a Soup Kitchen?

[Vesus1]

I thought the Tea Party was against bank bailouts? Now you side with the bankers...what happened to your principles?

[AZ007]

The 44 percent must be a part of the 47 percent of Americans that don't pay any federal income taxes. Of course, they feel that wealth should be distributed from the 53 percent that pay federal income taxes. The people protesting around the county expect "social justice" but all they do is laze around and complain about how bad they have it.

Part of the 99 percent? Get real and grow up! Most of these protestors own iPhones or other Chinese made electronics, which are made in slave labor factories.

[Vesus1]

And the anti-socialism people still drive on public highways and enjoy the fruits of taxpayer money.

Funny that they don't consider themselves hypocrites, eh?

[myabc123]

I feel this movement crosses normal economic and political boundries. I am sympathetic to elements of the tea party message and I also can sympathize with some of what the Wall St protestors are complaining about.

Here are 3 issues that are bugging me.

1.I'm a union member who works for Verizon.Verizon is a healthy,profitable company.They make billions in profit every quarter.They paid no federal income taxes the past 2 years and somehow even got a tax refund.They also took 1.5 billion $ in bailout money from you and me even though the CEO stated that they did not need any bailout money. So, how do they repay this country and their workers ? By trying to take away my pension, my healthcare plan and most importantly by moving as many American jobs as they can overseas! How does this help America's economic recovery ? Who are the politicians that allow this? Oh ,and the CEO makes the same amount of money as 300 average employees but I'm not supposed to mention this little fact because if I do then I'm engaging in class warfare. This corporation has no allegiance to this country,only to the stock price. The media won't say anything for fear of losing ad revenue. There has got to be a middle ground between corporate profits and maintaining a viable middle class in this country.

2. This financial disaster which started in late 2008 and is still going on ---- who has done the perp walk for this? NOBODY! NOBODY! As a matter of fact, not only has nobody done the perp walk but these foxes guarding the henhouse got bailed out with our money and even preserved their big money bonuses in the process.Who should do the perp walk ? People who rated absolute garbage debt as AAA,profiting while doing so. Corporate execs who stand up at a meeting and tell the public their company is healthy when they know that it is a house of cards.I lost alot of money in my 401k because of these irresponible clowns. The fact that nobody has gone to jail for this fiasco just makes your average working person feel that the game is rigged.

3. I've got kids whose future I'm very concerned about. Can you imagine how it must feel to come out of college with 100k- 200k of loan debt and the job prospects are almost none ? These kids have been sold down the river before they even get started.

The politicians on both sides of the aisle and the corporate exec who's attitude is "let em eat cake" need to know that there is a very large segment of the population that has had it with all of them and is just about reaching a boiling point.