income inequality
Still just a dream: 60 years later, racial wealth disparities remain wide
It was 60 years ago this week that Martin Luther King Jr. gave his “I Have a Dream Speech” to a quarter-million arrayed in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. The crowd must have been filled with hope. Lincoln’s war against slavery had been won almost a century earlier. But virtual slavery in […]
Don’t blame workers for poor service – blame CEOs
Ever get mad at a delivery driver for bringing your pizza late? I used to. Now I assume it’s late because an overpaid boss is probably making two employees do the job of 10. What changed? I worked for two years at a company with the kind of chronic understaffing that plagues many of America’s […]
It’s time to stand up to the oligarchy
Hardly a month goes by without news of billionaires lavishing gifts or favors on members of the U.S. Supreme Court. The latest revelation once again involved Justice Clarence Thomas, who reportedly has been traveling in private jets and luxury yachts to exotic destinations, paid for by a group of ultrawealthy benefactors. The fact that corruption grips the highest court […]
Report: CEOs who pay poorly do fabulously
Ticketmaster isn’t just crappy to its customers and to the musicians for whose shows it manages ticket sales. As a dominant event middleman, it tacks on hefty fees and has the effrontery to call them “convenience charges.” And bands complain that by the time parent company Live Nation Entertainment deducts its many cuts for their […]
Ohio economists divided on housing subsidy in conflict between House and Senate
As the Ohio legislature debates whether to provide subsidies to developers to build low-income housing, a panel of economists is divided on whether that will significantly lower rents. The lack of affordable housing is an acute problem in the Buckeye State. The Columbus Dispatch earlier this month reported that a full-time worker would have to […]
Analysis: Business tax cuts in Senate budget would overwhelmingly benefit the big boys
In announcing a draft state budget last week, Ohio Senate President Matt Huffman, R-Lima, said the plan “puts $3.1 billion back in the hands of families and small businesses.” Huffman didn’t mention the state’s big businesses, but that’s who will get the lion’s share of the business cuts in a state where business taxes already […]
Economists: Ohio flat-tax would worsen inequality
An overwhelming majority of a panel of Ohio economists believes that a flat-tax proposal pending in the Ohio House would worsen economic inequality in Ohio, according to a survey that was published Monday. Most of the 22 who responded also didn't think that the proposal would spur economic growth.
Think tank blasts Ohio flat tax proposal
It sounds fair. If everybody paid taxes at the same rate, the rich would pay more because of their higher incomes and the poor would pay less because they make less in the first place. But an Ohio proposal to enact such a "flat" state income tax ignores a host of other taxes, said a progressive public policy think tank. And the way that the law is written would only complicate the state's school-funding woes, take money from libraries and increase property taxes for farmers and homeowners, it added.
Economic inequality keeps getting worse, along with America’s toxic, corrupt politics
The most reliable economic fact for nearly 50 years is that American wealth and income inequality continues to explode. Alongside that we’ve seen rampant corruption and the toxic debasement of our politics. Meanwhile, hard-working Ohio and American families continue to suffer enormous hardship from poverty wages; childhood and family hunger; limited access to basic personal […]
Richest 1% of Ohioans make almost as much as entire bottom half, analysis says
Income inequality in Ohio has been growing for the past 50 years, with the 1% who make the highest wages getting 10% of the total take in 2018, according to a new analysis. Compare that to the lowest-earning 50% of Ohioans. Combined, they only made a little more than that tiny, highly paid sliver of […]
Is big split between rich and poor making us all poorer? Maybe
It seems as if income inequality would slow the economy. But in a recent survey a big portion of a panel of Ohio economists said… that depends. In the survey of 26 Ohio economists released Monday, 14 agreed that rising inequality in Ohio is slowing economic growth, four disagreed and eight said they were unsure. By […]
Ohio politicians push regressive tax system while shedding crocodile tears over inflation
Inflation hurts the people who make the least money the most, as do supply-side, regressive tax systems. So the wailing over inflation by wealthy politicians refusing to help hungry families and burdening them with regressive taxes while giving hand-outs to the rich, rings pretty hollow. Inflation squeezes working and middle class families because money doesn’t […]