This week, while President Obama and House Speaker Boehner gave dueling speeches of blame and recrimination, the Pew Research Center released a report showing the extraordinary increase in the disparity of wealth between whites and nonwhites in the United States. As the New York Times reported:
The study, which used data collected by the Census Bureau, found that the median wealth of Hispanic households fell by 66 percent from 2005 to 2009. By contrast, the median wealth of whites fell by just 16 percent over the same period. African Americans saw their wealth drop by 53 percent. Asians also saw a big decline, with household wealth dropping 54 percent.
The biggest reason cited in the report was that non-whites had a much greater percentage of their wealth in real estate where the losses were deepest and the "recovery" the slowest. We also know that unemployment among nonwhites is more widespread, and that it lasts longer than it does among whites. As Al Sharpton pointed out on the HuffingtonPost, since this report only uses data through 2009, the news could be far worse.
This has led to the greatest disparity of wealth between whites and nonwhites since the Census Bureau began collecting this sort of information 25 years ago. White households now have an average wealth that is 20 times greater than black households and 18 times greater than Hispanic households!
This data allows us to understand the stalemate in Washington over raising the debt ceiling from another perspective. The reason we have not yet had an agreement is that the president is insisting in what he calls a "balanced approach" in which families making more than $250,000 a year will have to pay more in taxes. Republicans (and apparently many Democrats), on the other hand, reject this tax increase and call for deeper spending cuts to further shrink the size of government.
Given the Republican reluctance to count the savings that should come from winding down the military conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, shrinking the size of government will reduce services to the most needy. This will certainly mean that services for blacks and Hispanics will decrease, and it will have the immediate effect of accelerating the disparities of wealth between these groups and whites. Cutting long-term investment in educational opportunities will deepen the hole for those struggling for the American dream. The refusal to pass just some of the burden of shrinking government services on to the people who can most afford it will further accelerate greater racial inequality in this country.
Of course, there are poor whites, too, and they would also suffer from an effort to balance the budget so as to further advantage the richest members of our society. And there are some wealthy black and Hispanic households that would not be hurt by cuts to programs aimed to protect the most vulnerable.
But the refusal to consider increased taxes on the wealthiest Americans is part of a network of efforts to maintain the trends toward inequality in this country. The report released this week from Pew Research Center reminds us that this is also a defense of the growing disparities between whites on the one hand, and blacks and Hispanics, on the other. The defense of racial and economic privilege under the rhetoric of "taking back our country," or of "living within our means" further undermines our political culture today as it starves future generations of cultural and economic opportunity.
InsightCCED.org - Closing the Racial Wealth Gap Initiative
Study Shows Racial Wealth Gap Grows Wider : NPR
Study: Racial wealth gap biggest ever - Reid J. Epstein - POLITICO.com
U.S. racial wealth gap quadrupled since mid-1980s, new study finds
Federal spending is the *source* of growing inequality of wealth. We have an oligarchy; more oligarchy does not mean more fairness.
- racism still alive and whites can go far w/o the so-called credentials needed by minorities
- business won't train their potential super-stars if they can pass this expense to taxpayers
- greedy business owners feel they don't have to participate in giving back to society
- rich politicians are completely out of touch with what's going on in America
- tv is becoming cheaper via reality shows where the rich cut out actors/actresses
(eliminates the need for both training and the studies of the arts now doesn't it)
- news is not news and lying on air has become legal
(keeps all constituents confused and incapable of casting votes based on facts)
- ineffectual law enforcement aside from cracking down on minorities and illegals
(keeps fear alive.)
- the Wall Street crew can get tiny percentage "settlements" for their crimes rather than
being charged criminally -- even when they crash entire economies on a global scale.
- too many lawyers and none available to help the poor with enforcement of U.S. civil laws.
At the end of the day, minorities are shoved under the bus and their ability to attain wealth are subjected to the tricks the republicans play on society. They are mean and nasty group that is guided by racism and every single policy they enact or push has racism underneath it -- be it blatent or having some long-term effect on the minorities they hate.
Anything the government tries to do for the poor whether it is housing, food, college etc., the businesses will charge the maximum for it.
Then of course the stock market takes another 10 to 20% profit off of everything sold.
So now, after your brilliant policies have resulted in the exact opposite of what you claimed what they would achieve, you want us to support more of the same policies. Please tell me how this makes any sense.
It's not unfair for the nothings to take a share from the somethings. America is mythologized is as a place you can stake your claim. Well, all the claims have been staked now. That makes it the obligation of the somethings to provide an endowment for the nothings to make a life. Taxes should be a burden borne by the somethings, to provide us with education, a safe, clean sustaining environment, infrastructure, basic health care, etc. Taxing the somethings more than the nothings is the only fair policy for the privilege of protecting their claim to almost everything.
Many pay property taxes, vehicle taxes, sales taxes and State taxes. Sales taxes are the most unfair if it is on groceries.
There are 10 people at the table and 1 pizza.
Two people have helped themselves to 8 pieces of pizza and the 8 people have to share the remaining 2 pieces...
Have you ever split 2 pieces of pizza between 8 people....
Punk'd anyone?
And as for the jackwads that support/subscribe to Teapotty politics, the bigger problem is not the disparity between the haves and have nots but between the know and know nots!!!!!
If you want to keep your job you will pay enough taxes to keep this country from getting worse. How long do you think your job will last if very few have jobs? I know it depends on what your job is.
Many white people work their butts off and earn $40,000 and pay a large percentage in taxes. You know what, that is essential money. Every penny is necessary to them.
You aren't taxed because you are white or because you worked your butt off and sacrificed.
Taxes are the price you pay if you want a peaceful country without revolutions.
Taxes are the price you pay for the privilege you had of doing well in this country.
You are falling prey to the unethical super wealthy who want to influence you to hate taxes as much as they do, so they keep stirring the pot and feeding resentment.
We get a lousy return on our current government spending. Why would anyone think the next batch will be better? We saving the really good projects and programs for when we tax more?
I agree with you on the qualify of tv, but education is available.
Also keep in mind that degrees mean nothing given the fact that globalism has taken hold and any unethical country that needs money can invent degrees out of thin air for a few rupees. In the business world, degree'd and certified folks make the biggest of the mistakes that end up taking companies down.
Bill Gates and many others that made it to the "top" are drop-outs. The only commonality between those that made it w/o degrees is that they are white drop-outs.