Income inequality aka class warfare

Here are two takes on income inequality in this country, both of which are underscored by the reality of class warfare. First, John Oliver’s piece on his HBO show “Last Week Tonight“:

And then there is this cartoon “A Formula for Inequality, Told in Four Generations,” a “Tom the Dancing Bug” comic strip by Ruben Bolling:

Ah, for the good old Class War Federation and their words to live by: “No war but the class war!”

Spoiler alert!

Tell me if you heard this one before.

Unsustainable living in San Francisco

The graphic and table below are pretty clear cut. It covers the proportion of income paid by renters on rent that is 50% or over. And, by the way, it is not sustainable to have to pay 50% of one’s income or more on rent.



And here’s the analysis of the above data:
Interpretation and Geographic Equity Analysis
The above map illustrates the percentage of households that spend 50% or more of their income on rent at the census tract level. The table provides the data aggregated at the neighborhood level. As the map demonstrates, there are many areas in San Francisco where 24%-65% of the population pays half or more of their income to rent. In the following neighborhoods, 25% or more of the population spends at least half of their income on rent:

Financial District (26%)
Downtown/Civic Center (27%)
Lakeshore (28%)
Excelsior (29%)
Ocean View (29%)
Bayview (30%)
Visitacion Valley (31%)
Households that spend more than 50% of their income on their homes are classified by the National Low Income Housing Coalition as severely cost-burdened.

source: Sustainable Income Index, San Francisco

State of Working America

The Economic Policy Institute is a left-of-liberal think tank that publishes The State of Working America, now in its 12th edition. This 500 page, incredibly well documented tome contains a mass of information on income, wages, jobs, mobility, wealth and poverty, along with tables, charts and graphs, essentially making the argument that for the last few decades income inequality has increased, wages for working Americans have gone down, jobs have been decimated or converted to low-paying service employment, social mobility for those in the middle and lower classes has rigidified, and “the rich have gotten richer and the poor have gotten poorer,” to quote an old phrase.

The EPI also makes policy recommendations: support workers rights and union organizing, increase the minimum wage, fight against “free trade” agreements like NAFTA, increase spending on the social safety net, etc. The EPI in general and The State of Working America in particular, provide all the factual ammunition you’ll need to fight and win your arguments against your conservative, moderate, or even liberal friends, not to mention make the case for building a democratic socialist United States.