Bushwhacked
There's no surprise here, but recent findings show that the divide between the incomes of African Americans and others has widened since Bush has been in office:
NEW YORK (Reuters) - African-Americans' share of U.S. national income has narrowed in recent years as a weak job market helped unwind earlier strides, according to a report published on Wednesday.In this case, I don't think this is due to a deliberate effort on Bush's part to screw blacks per se (though I won't let many other Rethuglicans off the hook that easily). What I think it is due to is a deliberate effort on Bush's part to screw the poor, among whom are a disproportionate number of blacks -- the obvious result of others' efforts to screw them in the past. Bush's entire administration has been Robin Hood in reverse: steal from the poor to give to the rich.
A black family's median income was 62 percent of the earnings of their white counterparts, down from 63.5 percent in 2000, the Economic Policy Institute said.
posted by walldon | 4:59 PM
1 Comments:
anteconomist asks about income distritutions in the Statistical Abstract. I haven't had a lot of time to go through the table since I am packing to leave town. First impressions: Money income is pre-tax and does not include realized capital gains. We all know what's happened to the tax structure in the past five years, and a healthy share of the income to the rich comes from capital gains (realized and unrealized). Second, the real disparity has been the growth at the very top -- i.e., the top 0.5% which is not seen in the table. Beyond that, it looks like the poorest segment has grown from 14.2% to 15.4% of the population during Bush's reign. If I don't forget, I'll try to come back to this when I return.
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