Rich and infamous

By The Economist online

Which countries think that the rich deserve their fortune?

SOME 39% of adults think that the rich in their country deserve their wealth according to GlobeScan, a market-research company which polled 12,000 people in 23 countries. Top earners have attracted more opprobium as their salaries and the performance of the economy have headed in opposite directions. Europeans and Latin Americans tend to have similar attitudes to the rich; the Anglo-Saxon world is a bit more forgiving. The biggest contrast, though, is between emerging economies (a group in which Russia sits, rather awkwardly). In China, where 600m people were lifted out of poverty between 1985 and 2005, about half the adults think their rich are rightfully so. But in Russia, an economy dominated by oligarchs who extract large windfall rents, only 16% do.