Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - new study on inequality of wealth in the us...

Plan9 · 05-17-2010, 03:34 PM

See, I don't see race as an issue so much as wealth. I think economic segregation is the real issue.

I'm going to attempt to be academic for a moment, so be gentle.

I think it basically shows the trend that's been occurring for the last 40+ years. In this piece called "The State of Working America" these guys demonstrate how income growth has changed in the "income quintiles" from 1947-1973 and 1973-2000. In the first set, 1947-1973, the poorest quintile gained 115% while the richest quintile only gained 84%... in the second set, 1973-2000, the poorest quintile only gained 10% whereas the richest gained 61%. All that basically means that, today, rich people are getting richer much faster than poor people are gaining any ground and that it didn't always used to be that way. This isn't race specific and yet it is... it's safe to say that racial minorities occupy the lower quintiles and that Grand Old Whitey occupies the upper ranks.

I just finished reading a gnarly textbook largely dedicated to this topic. It's called "Place Matters," it's unabashedly liberal, and it's all about economic segregation in the United States. Race and wealth are pretty much one and the same in the US (generally speaking, whitey has most of the money and doesn't want to live near The Other Colors, or so the text states). In order to combat this and the related suburban sprawl (whitey doesn't want to live next to darkie, so he moves to the 'burbs because he can afford the larger lot prices and wants to avoid paying taxes for services that help low SES families), the authors suggest an approach they refer to as "regionalism." The idea involves all sorts of things, such as tax base sharing, that would never fly in the US despite the rather convincing argument the book lays out as to how it could be done and the problems it will solve.

IIRC, some of the solutions the authors suggest are:
- Limit bidding wars between municipalities, they deprive a region of tax income; the only party that wins in a bidding war is the entity being fought over
- Making education regionally equitable by providing more federal and state funding to poor areas and developing new funding standards per child
- Adjusting minimum wage to the same ratio it was back in the 1970s and adjusting the poverty line (a total joke) to a more realistic standard

05-17-2010, 03:34 PM	#2 (permalink)
Plan9 I Confess a Shiver	See, I don't see race as an issue so much as wealth. I think economic segregation is the real issue. I'm going to attempt to be academic for a moment, so be gentle. I think it basically shows the trend that's been occurring for the last 40+ years. In this piece called "The State of Working America" these guys demonstrate how income growth has changed in the "income quintiles" from 1947-1973 and 1973-2000. In the first set, 1947-1973, the poorest quintile gained 115% while the richest quintile only gained 84%... in the second set, 1973-2000, the poorest quintile only gained 10% whereas the richest gained 61%. All that basically means that, today, rich people are getting richer much faster than poor people are gaining any ground and that it didn't always used to be that way. This isn't race specific and yet it is... it's safe to say that racial minorities occupy the lower quintiles and that Grand Old Whitey occupies the upper ranks. I just finished reading a gnarly textbook largely dedicated to this topic. It's called "Place Matters," it's unabashedly liberal, and it's all about economic segregation in the United States. Race and wealth are pretty much one and the same in the US (generally speaking, whitey has most of the money and doesn't want to live near The Other Colors, or so the text states). In order to combat this and the related suburban sprawl (whitey doesn't want to live next to darkie, so he moves to the 'burbs because he can afford the larger lot prices and wants to avoid paying taxes for services that help low SES families), the authors suggest an approach they refer to as "regionalism." The idea involves all sorts of things, such as tax base sharing, that would never fly in the US despite the rather convincing argument the book lays out as to how it could be done and the problems it will solve. IIRC, some of the solutions the authors suggest are: - Limit bidding wars between municipalities, they deprive a region of tax income; the only party that wins in a bidding war is the entity being fought over - Making education regionally equitable by providing more federal and state funding to poor areas and developing new funding standards per child - Adjusting minimum wage to the same ratio it was back in the 1970s and adjusting the poverty line (a total joke) to a more realistic standard __________________ *Whatever you can carry.* "You should not drink... and bake." Last edited by Plan9; 05-17-2010 at 03:54 PM..