Income Inequality

CA media: GOP dysfunction bigger topic than mass poverty

The Los Angeles Times’ news analysis about how recent controversies are likely to hurt California Republicans with two constituencies they are trying to woo — Latinos and women — isn’t loaded or biased. It’s likely true. Here’s a bit of

Middle class fading away…

John Seiler April 5, 2014

The middle class in California and the rest of America keeps fading away under assaults from Republicans and Democrats, Presidents Bush and Obama, Govs. Schwarzenegger and Brown. The latest from AP: “Since 2008, the number of people who call themselves

Need to create middle-class CA jobs matters more than minimum wage

Chris Reed March 26, 2014

Economic conservatives seem wary over the attempts by Democrats at just about every level of government to focus on the minimum wage. But should they be? It provides an easy way to broaden the debate from how the poor are

Legislature worries more about animal misery than human misery

Chris Reed March 25, 2014

California has the highest adjusted poverty rate in the nation — and by a significant margin. Nearly 1 in 4 state residents struggles to make ends meet. Unemployment was about the same in the nation as a whole in 2006.

CA taxes 150% higher than Washington state’s — to what benefit?

Chris Reed March 21, 2014

A new survey of state and local taxes finds California and New York take the biggest bite out of their residents’ pocketbooks. The average Californian forks over $9,509 a year; the average New Yorker, $9,718. Alas, the mainstream media coverage

Will failed Prop. 209 rollback help GOP with Asian voters? It depends

Chris Reed March 19, 2014

With Asian-Americans making up 14 percent of the state’s electorate, there is a small but real chance that this past month’s developments in the Legislature could prove the biggest story in California politics in years. I refer to Asian Democratic

Ruling on Chuck Reed’s pension initiative not end of the world

Chris Reed March 14, 2014

Editor’s update, 2 p.m.: San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed is reportedly suspending the initiative push until 2016 because the court delays related to the ballot language challenge will make it difficult for signature gatherers to meet deadlines — not because

Welfare, housing: Clinton pragmatism still ignored by CA’s dim paleo Dems

Chris Reed February 24, 2014

In the late 1980s, after three straight Republican presidential wins in which GOP candidates won 133 of 150 states, the Democratic Leadership Council seized prominence in Democratic policy circles with its centrist reform agenda. Founded in 1985 by strategist Al

Study of Los Angeles: Prosperity increases income inequality

Chris Reed February 23, 2014

Coverage of income inequality is shockingly slanted and inept. Lazy, populist demonization of the 1 percent is the standard default starting position for explaining why poor people make a small fraction of what the very wealthy do. But as I’ve

Shakedown street: Jesse Jackson targets Silicon Valley — again

Chris Reed February 22, 2014

However one feels about the growing fuss over white and Asian dominance of U.S. tech work forces, there are some fundamental facts to consider, starting with: African-American students are less likely to graduate college with degrees in high-tech fields. This