Household income fails to keep pace with housing and transportation expenses

October 18, 2012 at 1:39 pmCategory:NC Budget and Tax Center

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The combined cost of housing and transportation continue to outpace income growth in the nation’s largest 25 metropolitan areas, according to a report released today by the Center for Housing Policy and the Center for Neighborhood Technology. The authors of the report found that looking at the combined cost of these two indicators is particularly important because transportation-related costs shape the overall affordability of a community, and in turn, affect the ability of families to make ends meet.

From 2000 to 2010, the researchers found that the expenses for housing and transportation rose by $1.75 for each dollar gained in household income, meaning many families are worse off now than at the beginning of the decade. Overall, housing and transportation costs consume nearly half of all household income, forcing many low- and moderate-income families to make tradeoffs between these expense and other expenses like food, child care, and health care. The following policies were among some of the policy tools available that are highlighted in the report:   Read More…

Prosperity Watch: Income inequality grows in North Carolina, likely slowing economic growth

October 10, 2012 at 12:03 pmCategory:NC Budget and Tax Center

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Income inequality in America has been building for decades. Just last year, income inequality set a  modern record—and the roots of the problem are the jobs deficit, the acceleration of low-wage jobs, and the tax code. As discussed in the latest issue of Prosperity Watch, income inequality is widespread and growing in North Carolina, with the top fifth of households holding over half of all state income. For more details, visit Prosperity Watch.

When it comes to income inequality, study finds we are fooling ourselves

October 4, 2012 at 5:30 pmCategory:NC Budget and Tax Center

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In this space yesterday, I provided an overview of how widespread income inequality is in North Carolina. As a brief reminder, North Carolina households in the top fifth hold more income than all of the remaining households combined in the state. Although income inequality hit a modern high last month in the United States, a 2011 study found that a lot of Americans’ hold a perception that does match up with this reality.   

Duke Professor Dan Ariely and Harvard Professor Michael Norton asked approximately 5,500 Americans (whose median income was $45,000) how they thought wealth is actually distributed in the nation. The study found that Americans perceived the distribution of wealth to be more equal than it actually is. In fact, 92 percent of respondents said their optimal level of inequality was even more equitable than their flawed perceptions, meaning they want to live in much more equal communities. Read More…

Income inequality grows in NC, likely putting downward pressure on already-low levels of economic mobility

October 3, 2012 at 4:14 pmCategory:NC Budget and Tax Center

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Income inequality—the extent to which income is distributed unevenly—is widespread and growing in North Carolina, according to a recent report by the Budget and Tax Center. In a free market economy, a certain level of inequality is to be expected. However, we are experiencing historically high levels of income inequality—levels that are limiting and eroding the equality of opportunity, a core tenet of the American Dream.

Research shows that 42 percent of Americans born into the bottom fifth of the income distribution remain there as adults. This means that one’s financial standing as an adult is largely dependent upon their parents’ financial standing. This is certainly problematic considering 1 in 4 of North Carolina’s children live in poverty. More troubling, the average North Carolinian experiences lower-levels of absolute and upward mobility compared to the average Southeasterner and American. Read More…

POLICY AND POVERTY MATTERS: Our Collective Inability to #TalkPoverty Hurts Us All

September 28, 2012 at 3:25 pmCategory:NC Budget and Tax Center

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An honest and substantive discussion about poverty is, and has long been, virtually missing from the public debates. When is the last time you read a news article covering the issue of poverty in a substantive way? Chances are slim, according to a recent study conducted by Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting.

Of the nearly 10,500 campaign articles published from January to June 2012 that were reviewed, the study found that national media coverage of poverty-related issues appeared in only 17 of the articles. Yet, the study found that “debt” and “deficit” appeared in 1,848 of the articles. How can we talk about fiscal cliffs, scaling back social insurance programs, and improving the weak economic recovery without having a substantive conversation about poverty, the structural factors that are driving poverty, and how it affects us all? Read More…