From New York Times Economix blog. The change in home prices for the previous 12 months for 20 US cities from 2001-2008. I took the graph for each city and order them by the change in home prices from Oct 2007 - Oct 2008. The blue bars is each city's data while the gray is the 20-city average.
{Click on the image to take a closer look}
[tags]United States, Home Prices[/tags]
Here is my fifth entry in my series on US Cities. Using 2000 Census data I have mapped % of people living in poverty in the Seattle metropolitan area. you can find the original interactive map at Social Explorer Choose "Poverty" from the second drop down, then select the magnifying glass to zoom in on Seattle.
{Click on the image to take a closer look}
For reference I am including a Google map of Seattle. You can use this map just like the regular Google map and close the white message box.
This is my fourth entry in my series on US Cities. Using 2000 Census data I have mapped % of people living in poverty in the San Francisco-Oakland metropolitan area. If you would like to see the original interactive map go to Social Explorer and choose "Poverty" from the second drop down, then select the magnifying glass to zoom in on San Francisco-Oakland.
{Click on the image to take a closer look}
For reference I am including a Google map of San Francisco-Oakland. You can use this map just like the regular Google map and close the white message box.
[googlemaps https://maps.google.com/maps?q=San+Francisco,+CA,+USA&ie=UTF8&ll=37.840157,-122.386322&spn=0.486265,0.891953&t=h&z=11&om=1&output=embed&s=AARTsJrjhWfMHFd-MiN15_i3xQfyIrsGDQ&w=500&h=500]
See also: United States Poverty Map
[tags]income distribution, US income distribution, inequality, income inequality, income map, poverty, San Francisco, Oakland[/tags]
Another entry in my series on US Cities. Using 2000 Census data I have mapped % of people living in poverty in Minneapolis-St. Paul's metropolitan area. The choice was inspired by a Visualizing Economics mention in the Star Tribune. If you would like to see the original interactive map go to Social Explorer and choose "Poverty" from the second drop down, then select the magnifying glass to zoom in on the city.
{Click on the image to take a closer look}
For reference I am including a Google map of the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. You can use this map just like the regular Google map and close the white message box.
Another entry in my series on US Cities. Using 2000 Census data I have mapped % of people living in poverty in Houston's metropolitan area. If you would like to see the original interactive map go to Social Explorer and choose "Poverty" from the second drop down, then select the magnifying glass to zoom in on Houston.
{Click on the image to take a closer look}
For reference I am including a Google map of Houston, TX. You can use this map just like the regular Google map and close the white message box.
I am starting a new series on US Cities. I will be looking at income distribution and poverty in both large and small cities throughout the United States. First up is New York City. Using 2000 Census data I have mapped % of people living in poverty in the New York metropolitan area. If you would like to see the original interactive map go to Social Explorer and choose "Poverty" from the second drop down, then select the magnifying glass to zoom in on NYC.
{Click on the image to take a closer look}
For reference I am including a Google map of New York City. You can use this map just like the regular Google map and close the white message box.
The Social Explorer is one of the most unique presentation of Census data I have found on the web. It not only allows you to create maps of different Census data series but you can create slideshows on the fly (or create a report by selecting different locations on your map). Unfortunately I couldn't find a way to save a slide show but here are some examples of the maps I made: Median Household Income for the United States:
Median Household Income for Louisville, KY:
After my previous post about the U.S News & World Report article about economic anxiety, I decided (just for fun) to do a quick survey of several mainstream media sites for references to income inequality. Here are the results: From the Washington Post:
Reward for the Hereditary Elite
The nation faces rising inequality. Since 1980 the gap between the earnings of the top fifth and the bottom fifth has jumped by almost 50 percent. The United States is by some measures the most unequal society in the rich world and the most unequal that it's been since the 1920s. What is the dumbest possible response to this? Identify the most progressive federal tax and repeal it.
U.S. Losing it's Middle Class Neighborhoods
In their place, poor and rich neighborhoods are both on the rise, as cities and suburbs have become increasingly segregated by income, according to a Brookings Institution study released Thursday. It found that as a share of all urban and suburban neighborhoods, middle-income neighborhoods in the nation's 100 largest metro areas have declined from 58 percent in 1970 to 41 percent in 2000.
James P. Smith of Rand Corp. has shown that the children and grandchildren of Latino immigrants come very close to closing educational and income gaps with native whites. This is the same as it has always been in American immigration: Newcomers know what keeps them outside the mainstream and work hard to make sure that their children do better. Immigrant Latino men make about half of what native whites do; their grandsons earn about 78 percent of the salaries of their native white friends.
Previous research has shown that people are more trusting of each other in more economically equal states. Participation in community life is greater, social supports are stronger and levels of violence are lower. "The higher violence and lower trust all suggest that social relations are poorer in more unequal societies," continues Wilkinson, author of "The Impact of Inequality: How to Make Sick Societies Healthier" (The New Press).
Natives Feel Left Out of China's New West
In the six years since China's central government began its well-financed campaign to spread the benefits of economic growth beyond coastal provinces, the effort has exacerbated the extreme inequality that characterizes the national economy. Gaps have grown between urban and rural China and between the less-developed west and the frenetic east.
From Newsweek:
Globalization and its Discontents
We know by the data that have been collected, that over time, economic growth benefits all sectors of the population. However, in the short term, there is no question that economic growth increases income inequality. Some people are better positioned to take advantage of the new economic opportunities than others. Some people make a real bundle of money; others are lucky if they get a job. For example, in Latin American countries, particularly in Brazil and in Mexico, as those countries economies have expanded and as they have participated more in globalization, the rich have gotten richer in comparison to the poor. But it’s not necessarily the case that the poor have gotten poorer.
Between 1989, when the current Socialist/Christian Democratic coalition reached power and democracy returned to the country, and 2005, the Chilean economy has grown nearly 6 percent per year, more than doubling per capita income. Poverty has been drastically reduced; education, health, housing and other social indicators have all improved significantly, and even inequality, that terrible bane of all hemispheric societies, has finally begun to diminish, albeit modestly. For practical purposes, Chile is on the verge of occupying the lowest rung of the highest ladder: becoming a still poor but now developed nation, perhaps like Greece or Portugal a few years ago in Western Europe, like Poland or South Korea more recently.
From the New York Times (no specific reference to income inequality but I liked the quote at the end) The Ultra-Rich Give Differently From You and Me
Almost alone among rich Americans, Mr. Buffett has argued that estate taxes should be increased, not eliminated. Mr. Buffett says the estate tax helps build a vibrant economy of innovators and strivers — a true meritocracy — and that repealing it would risk a stunted economy controlled by aristocratic inheritors. Repealing the estate tax, he has said, would be the economic equivalent of "choosing the 2020 Olympic team by picking the eldest sons of the gold-medal winners in the 2000 Olympics."
[tags]income inequality[/tags]
Cities ranked by Cost of Living for 2004 and 2005. No American cities made the top 10. However, New York was 13th.Number 1: TOKYO
