New Article: James T. Smith, Nurturing The Baby Bond Proposal: How Tax Principles Can Close the Racial Wealth Gap in the United States, 94 Temple L. Rev. 147 (2022). Excerpt below:
“Every day I’m trying to play catch-up,” said Kourtney McGowan—a Black mother from California who became unemployed after her company refused to accommodate her work schedule during the COVID-19 pandemic. McGowan noted that she could not “have [her] son in [her] office for eight hours every day,” and she had no reliable plan for childcare. She turned her eight-year-old son to therapy to address his anxieties stemming from the pandemic. “Raising Black boys is hard in itself . . . . I’m just trusting God,” said McGowan. The United States of America is the wealthiest country in the world, but, paradoxically, it has the largest wealth gap in the world. The wealth gap in the United States is starkest between races—Black wealth per family has declined by approximately 50% since 1983, while White wealth per family has increased by 33%. Families, like the McGowans, are finding themselves in difficult positions where they are “going to have quite a bit less to leave to their children.” Black children are more likely to live in poverty than their White peers, which impacts not only their physical and mental health but also their ability to achieve economic mobility.
Poverty Law 