Our Fine City
The rich get richer, and the poor ... A recent study by a group called the D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute concluded that the income gap between rich and poor in Washington D.C. was "wider than in any other major U.S. city."
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The income gap between rich and poor in Washington, D.C., is significantly wider than nearly every other large city in the United States, according to a report released on Thursday.> Reuters: "Wash DC's Rich-Poor Gap One of Widest in US--Study"
The study from the D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute, a research group focused on issues impacting low- and middle-income people, said economic development in the capital benefited the top fifth of the city's population in the 1990s. It did little for the poor.
The average income of the richest 20 percent of Washington, D.C., households grew by 35.7 percent during the last decade, while the average income of the bottom 20 percent rose 3.3 percent, the report said.
The average income of the city's richest residents was almost 31 times higher, at $186,830, than that of the poorest, at $6,126, according to the D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute. ...
A major factor in DC's income gap is the presence of very wealthy people living inside Washington's boundaries, rather than in the suburbs of Maryland and Virginia.
In fact, the capital's wealthy rank among the most well-off in any U.S. city. They are richer than their peers in all cities but San Francisco and San Jose, California, the report said. ...
> Read the press release from the DC Fiscal Policy Institute
3 Comments:
Lets face facts, what middle (lower-m or upper-m) class family would want to live in the District? The taxes are higher and the services are worse than the 'burbs in both VA and MD, not to mention you pretty much have to pay for private school if you have kids. When I moved from NVa to DC my taxes went through the roof. You either have to be relatively well off to afford to live here, or too poor to escape. Make DC a place the middle class would like to live (cut taxes, fix the school situation, root out waste and corruption in the city services) and DC's residents won't be so polarized by wealth.
Isn't it known that the very stability of our 'great nation'(today's functioning economic machine) depends on the maintenance of the majority buffer, the middle class? As taught in business the middle class market is an almost exponentially expanding classification ranging in income from around 25k to 250k. The filthy rich must sustain a majority of docile Middle Americans to keep shoveling the coal into the money machine. This buffer has historically been a way of preventing revolution. So do we work to satisfy the burgeoning of this gap? Or do we focus on the limits of the normal curve in an attempt to bring America into a straighter line? In order for the rich to stay rich the poor must always be poor, or even better, poorer.
Isn't it known that the very stability of our 'great nation'(today's functioning economic machine) depends on the maintenance of the majority buffer, the middle class? As taught in business the middle class market is an almost exponentially expanding classification ranging in income from around 25k to 250k. The filthy rich must sustain a majority of docile Middle Americans to keep shoveling the fools gold, the false consumer dreams of the middle class, so they may continue to be slaves to the money machine.
The middle class buffer has historically been a way of preventing revolution. It is imperative to sustain this mass especially at the epicenter where decisions are made on a daily basis to perpetuate this gravitation: of rich to richer, and poor to poorer in Washington, D.C.
So do we work to satisfy the burgeoning of this gap? Or do we focus on the limits of the normal curve in an attempt to bring America into a straighter line? In order for the rich to stay rich, The middle class must be the buffer for the poor who must always be poor, or even better, poorer.
~El gemelo~
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