After Mitt Romney won the New Hampshire primary, he described Barack Obama in his victory speech as dividing the nation with “the bitter politics of envy.” The next morning on NBC’s “Today”, he was asked by the interviewer, “Are there no fair questions about the distribution of wealth without it being seen as envy?” Romney replied, “I think it’s fine to talk about those things in quiet rooms and the discussions about tax policy and the like.”

Ah, there’s the rub. The issue of inequity in wealth and income distribution has been brought out of the “quiet rooms” – where power brokers discuss and decide policy – into the harsh light of day. The Occupy Wall Street movement that began on September 15 swept across the nation at warp speed. Placards proclaimed “We are the 99 Percent!” and people marched in cities that stretched from New York through Chicago to Oakland, California. Tens of thousands of men and women, young and old, employed and unemployed, brought the subject of economic inequity front and center into the consciousness of the American people. TV and newspaper coverage was constant. In most cities, the demonstrations were peaceful. Some turned violent as police used pepper spray to control protestors. When skeptics asked, “What is your agenda?” they answered, “Our message is our agenda. We are the 99 Percent!”

On January 11, the Pew Research Center released an important nation-wide survey that revealed two-thirds of Americans now believe there are “strong or very strong conflicts” between rich and poor in the United States. In 2009, when a similar survey was conducted, the two main sources of tension in the society were reported as “racial strain and immigrants versus native born.” It would appear very clear that the Occupy Wall Street movement – emphasizing economic inequity – had played a large part in changing the focus to fairness and a shot at the American Dream. It was also evident that President Obama’s clarion call to seek “Fairness” and support the Middle Class was having an effect on the electorate.

The results of the Pew Survey contrasted the percentages of different groups in 2009 who said there were “strong or very strong” conflicts between the rich and poor in America with their perceptions in 2011. The total of all groups showed an increase from 47 percent to 66 percent holding those perceptions -– a jump of 19 percent in just two years. The total results were broken down for groups by Race and Ethnicity, Age, Income, Education, Ideology and Political Party. For example, Race and Ethnicity results were given for White, Black and Hispanic. They showed that the greatest increase in perception of “conflict” between rich and poor was for the White respondents -– from 43 percent in 2009 to 65 percent in 2011. Blacks and Hispanics – with a bottom up economic view – already held high perceptions of “strong conflict” in 2009; 66 and 55 percent with lesser increases to 74 and 61 percent in 2011. (See New York Times, Charles Blow Op Ed, January 14, 2012 for the chart with complete breakdown by groups of the Pew results.)

The Pew survey of perceptions of conflict in our society is tied directly to the growth of economic inequality since the mid-20th century. The 30 year period after World War II, 1949-1979, was a time of optimism and economic growth. There were strong regulations of business and industry, high taxes, powerful unions and income increases rose across all levels. The G.I. Bill meant that college graduates jumped from six percent to twenty percent, creating a larger number of higher educated men and women entering the work force. There was a steadily expanding middle class with the safety net of Franklin Roosevelt’s legacy of Social Security, followed by Medicare and Medicaid in 1965 during Lyndon Johnson’sWar on Poverty.

The 30 year period from l980 to 2010 saw Germany and Japan rising as strong economic competitors in the world market. In the United States, regulation of business was loosened and anti-unionism spread, along with a negative view of the entitlement society, epitomized in Ronald Reagan’s targeting of “welfare queens.” The movie, “Wall Street,” introduced Gordon Gekko who championed “Greed is good” to his corporate stock holders. Income growth stagnated at the lower levels while shooting astronomically upward. By 2006, the top one percent of the population had enjoyed a startling 235 percent increase in their income during the 30 year period. For most Americans, however, income had risen at less than 20 percent during the three decades. Graphs show an almost flat line moving across the bottom – at middle and lower income levels for 30 years – as the income line for the very rich soars toward the top of the graph.

Richard Morin, an editor at Pew Research, said, “Income inequality is no longer just for economists. It has moved off the business pages onto the front page.” The current political campaign leading up to the 2012 elections has boiled down to Mitt Romney‘ s “ Politics of Envy“ versus Barack Obama‘s “Fairness for the Middle Class.” Elizabeth Warren, the Harvard economist running for the Senate in Massachusetts, has a unique way of describing the “social contract” between the rich and the rest of society. “There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own. Nobody. You built a factory out there. Good for you. But, I want to be clear: You moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for. You hired workers the rest of us paid to educate. You were safe in your factory because of police forces and fire forces the rest of us paid for. You didn’t have to worry that the marauding band would come and seize everything at your factory and hire someone to protect against this because of the work the rest of us did. Now look, you built a factory and it turned into something terrific or a great idea. God bless. Keep a big hunk of it. But part of the underlying social contract is you take a hunk of that and pay forward for the next kid who comes along.”

Joyce S. Anderson is the author of “Courage in High Heels,” “Flaw in the Tapestry,” “If Winter Comes,” “The Mermaids Singing” and her new book, “The Critical Eye.” She can be reached at JSAWrite@aol.com.