(Leaving the connection between austerity and gentrification/displacement to the reader…) This is one of the seemingly never-ending series of New York Times articles about wealthy young people having to leave uber-hip neighborhoods for new, cheaper destinations (like Queens and Jersey!). I read the Times pretty faithfully, and these articles never (1) talk about non-wealthy non-young…
Category: Inequality
Are unions necessary?
Friday reading: Are unions necessary? – latimes.com. Feb 27, 2014. Michael Hiltzik comments on the ongoing debate between Evan Soltas (Bloomberg) and Michael Wasser (Jobs with Justice), spurred in part by the interference of North Carolina legislators with the union election at Volkswagen’s plant there. You can read more of the exchange here. Aside from…
How much income do you need to buy a home in the Bay Area?
The short answer is: a lot. And: probably more than you have if you live in the Bay Area. To cover principal and interest alone on a median-priced home in the greater Bay Area $682,410, you would need $115,510 in annual income. The monthly payment would be $2,695.23. To also cover taxes and insurance, you…
Rich people, poor people
Mayor Bloomberg’s interesting framing of how rich people bring more money to the city’s budget, which helps the many poor people living in the city (yes, despite all the frenzy about hipsters in NY, 46% of New Yorkers’s live under 150% of the federal poverty threshold, or less than $35,775 for a family of four)….
Household Incomes Remain Flat Despite Improving Economy – NYTimes.com
And how’s that recovery going? Inequality, poverty, incomes are all pretty much unchanged. This pretty much sums it up: “The good news from today’s 2012 income and poverty results is that for the first year since the Great Recession hit, things aren’t getting worse,” Jared Bernstein of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a…