Feb
24
Blog Post #4: Income inequality in NYC
February 24, 2015 | Leave a Comment
We’ve talked about income inequality and the income gap in our previous topics, but these articles specifically talk about it in NYC. CCN’s article really put perspective in how “the rich are getting richer.” I knew that NYC would have a large income gap, but it was shocking to see barely any income growth among the lower 20%. However, after reading the City Journal’s “What the Rich Give to New York,” I saw the arguments to both sides. I agree that NYC benefits a lot from generous donations from the rich to provide public services for all to enjoy, but this shouldn’t let us ignore the problem of growing income inequality.
The CCN article gives some useful statistics to show how disproportional the income really is. The lower 20% has only increased 8% over the last ten years in median household income, while the upper 1% has grown over 58% in median household income. At this rate, only the wealthy can sustain the also increasing standard of living. In this report, it isn’t surprising to see that whites have control of most of the city. What is surprising is that Asians make up the lowest portion of income compared to Latinos and Non-Hispanic Blacks. However, this may be due to them being the smallest population group.
Race and wealth aren’t the only factors, but income inequality can be seen through NYC’S subway lines. I found the The New Yorker’s article an interesting read because I can visually see this every day. I’ve grown up riding the subways from the R line to the D line. I’ve been all over the city from the Bronx to Queens to Brooklyn. Income inequality is visible in that you can see which stops and which lines are wealthier verses the poorer. The wealthier stops are renovated and clean while the poorer stops look like it hasn’t been touched in years. It is no surprise that the higher median household income come from Manhattan since it’s where most of the wealth is concentrated.
According to the City Journal article, private wealth pays for the city’s public wealth which includes transportation, museums, libraries, and parks. Yes – their tax money and donations been put in good use and has changed NYC to be the city we all know and love. It is important to create these free educational and social programs at libraries or museums since it gives opportunities to those who need it. These opportunities can help the poor improve their education and learn new skills which could land them new opportunities in the work place.
It is great that the wealthy funds NYC and its public services, but donating money will not help decrease the income gap. My question is, how will the poor sustain against the growing standard of living and the growing income gap? Everything is getting costly and more expensive, but their income has become stagnant.
-JanYing He
