Blue Mass Group

Reality-based commentary on politics.

Wonk Graphics: U.S. Income Inequality by City

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From the Washington Post:

The following graphs illustrates the ranking and comparative trends of income inequality between 2012 and 2013, with the top table ranking those cities with the most income inequality and the bottom table ranking the cities with the least:

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  1. How do we deal with the fact that some cities include sprawling suburbs whereas others (like Boston) are surrounded by cities and towns that would be gobbled up by Boston were they in another portion of the country?

    And, a local question: How the hell is the 20th percentile in Boston only $16k but 20th percentile Nashville $21.4k? Good grief!

    • Doesn’t New York City have a special tax only for residents of the city? If Boston had one it would help to make the 1%’ers pay for the city, your MBTA underfunding would be better and the money could be used specifically for problems inherent to city life.

    • …that was sourced by the Post is here.

      Not all cities have the ability or right to annex neighboring municipalities without their consent; in addition increased income inequality is not a Boston-specific trend within the region, but is a statewide dynamic, particularly within 495.

      Purely as a working hypothesis I think that migration patterns in Boston (which has been exporting its working class for three decades (and this does not include white flight in prior years), while importing lower-income unskilled labor from abroad; and selectively bad pubic education) are the reasons for the datum referenced by your second question: our poor are getting poorer.

  2. To pick up on Bob’s comment that Boston is on the Olympic podium in the income inequality competition, an excerpt from a post on the enormous wealth that is concentrated in the leadership of Boston 2024:

    Just for starters, we know that at least seven of them belong to the wealthiest one-tenth of one percent (measured by Forbes Magazine at $3.8 million annually, the point at which one achieves orbital velocity and starts to escape earth’s monetary gravitational field):

    Bill Teuber, Executive Vice President, EMC Corporation: $6.2 million in 2013
    Ron Sargent, Chairman and CEO, Staples Corporation: $10.8 million in 2013
    David Long, Chairman and CEO, Liberty Mutual: $10.9 million in 2013
    Roger Crandall, President and CEO, Mass Mutual Financial Group: $11.4 million in 2013
    Jeffrey M. Leiden, Chairman, President and CEO, Vertex Pharmaceuticals: $13.1 million in 2013
    Joseph L. Hooley, President and CEO, State Street Corporation: $15.8 million in 2013
    Joseph M. Tucci, Chairman, President and CEO, EMC Corporation: $16.6 million in 2013.

    (Not for nothing does Boston’s income inequality score rank us very high among U.S. cities.)

    • Do we know that the cited individuals actually reside within the region identified as “Boston” in the above chart?

      I share the disdain for Boston 2024 and its organizers, I’m just not sure that these wealthy individuals were actually included in the cited research.

  3. It would appear there id a link between progressive leadership and policies and the exacerbation of income inequality.

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