CT has horrible income inequality

From a Center on Budget and Policy Priorities study, as interpreted by Connecticut Voices for Children: Connecticut ranks third in the country, with its richest residents— the top five percent of households— having average incomes 17 times as large as the bottom 20 percent of households and five times as large as the middle 20 percent …

What, ho, the American Dream?

If you want to read more, go here.

How does your state fare?

The Center for American Progress has released its State of the States report. You can read it here. And thanks, Kimberley, for the link.

In towns with high inequality, the poor pay more for housing

The rich. They crap up everything. I kid! But this says in cities where income inequality is high, the poor pay significantly more for housing. From Brookings: Inequality at the local level may be undesirable for a variety of reasons. It may diminish the ability of schools to maintain mixed-income populations that produce better outcomes …

Which cities have the widest gap between wealth and poverty?

Watch this Wall Street 24/7 video and find out. And yes. Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk is No. 1. You can read more here. And thanks, Jac, for the link.

“But I don’t see color” serves no one

Ebony sends this, an interesting Salon essay about the dangers of color blindness among popular progressive politicians. Presidential candidate and Vt. Sen. Bernie Sanders is saying a lot of good and meaningful stuff in relation to wealth and income inequality, but this Vox piece suggests he might be a 1930s radical (not so concerned with …

Economic inequality is worse than you think

From Scientific American: The average American believes that the richest fifth own 59% of the wealth and that the bottom 40% own 9%. The reality is strikingly different. The top 20% of US households own more than 84% of the wealth, and the bottom 40% combine for a paltry 0.3%. The Walton family, for example, …

You say “poverty,” I say “po-TAH-to.”

Leftover sends this, a powerful, concise essay by Peter Marcuse on what language we should use to describe wealth/income inequality/poverty/war on. From the essay: In fact, the way the rich obtain their wealth is what generates poverty. Here are a few specific mechanisms by which this happens: Exploitation at the work place. Keeping the pay …

EPI asks: How unequal is your state?

Check out this report from Economic Policy Institute. (A hint? New York and Connecticut are the worst — the absolutely worst — for wealth and income inequality.) (And this:) The states in which all income growth between 2009 and 2012 accrued to the top 1 percent include Delaware, Florida, Missouri, South Carolina, North Carolina, Connecticut, Washington, …

Helaine Olen at Forbes…

…read this from the New York Times’ David Brooks, and fired back rather nicely don’t you think? Olen took special offense at Brooks’ notion that: Affluent, intelligent people are now more likely to marry other energetic, intelligent people. They raise energetic, intelligent kids in self-segregated, cultural ghettoes where they know little about and have less …