News Article: For Many, Lawyer is a Luxury Out of Reach

James Lartey, For Many, a Lawyer Is a Luxury Out of Reach: Sixty years after a landmark Supreme Court ruling, the promise of legal representation for everyone is largely unrealized, The Marshall Project July 7, 2023.

Op-Ed: The Time Tax

Op-Ed: Annie Lowrey, The Time Tax, The Atlantic (July 27, 2021).

Why is so much American bureaucracy left to average citizens?

Two New Articles on Inequality and Mobility in the United States

Two new articles are getting a significant amount of media attention:

1. Raj Chetty et al., Where is the Land of Opportunity? The Geography of Intergenerational Mobility in the United States, NBER Working Paper 19843 (2014).

2. Raj Chetty et al., Is the United States Still the Land of Opportunity? Recent Trends in Intergenerational Mobility?, NBER Working Paper 19844 (2014).

The authors have a nice website, The Equality of Opportunity Project, with links to executive summaries, slides, maps, and the extensive media coverage.  [The media coverage includes helpful summaries as well as some misleading takes or choices of what to emphasize.]

What Percent Are You — Wall Street Journal and New York Times

Income and Wealth Calculators:

• Phil Izzo, What Percent Are You?, Wall Street Journal, Oct. 19, 2011.
• What Percent Are You?, New York Times, Jan. 14, 2012 (also has it by specific regions/cities).

 

TED Talk: “How economic inequality harms societies”

TED Talk: Richard Wilkinson, “How economic inequality harms societies”.  The talk is on exactly what the title states, done in a very approachable way.

-Thanks to Zach Zarnow for the heads up!

N.Y. Times Graphic on Income Shares

(Image above from MLK Jr. Memorial in DC)

The N.Y. Times has a new graphic on income shares with sample individuals/jobs from 0.01% to the bottom 90% here.  Note, the size of each group is by volume in the graphic, read by height it is a little confusing.

Timely New Article: “Inequality and the Deficit”

Timely New Article: Stephen B. Cohen, Inequality and the Deficit, SSRN.  Abstract below:

The enormous increase in economic inequality in the United States should play a central role in public discourse about the federal deficit. This essay reviews statistical evidence of trends in the distribution of income and wealth in the United States. The evidence demonstrates a dramatic increase in economic inequality. The gap between the rich and poor, and between the rich and the middle class, is today wider than at any other time in the past four decades.

N.Y. Times Op-Ed: “Winning the Class War”

Op-Ed of interest: Bob Herbert, Winning the Class War, New York Times, Nov. 26, 2010.