Lopsided Income Growth in New York City
On average, income growth in New York City grew 60.5% between 1979 to 2007.
Sounds great, right? Well, not quite.
The top 1% accounted for a disproportionately massive share of the growth-67% to be exact. The growth of the top 1% far surpassed the growth of the bottom 99%, whose contribution to the growth was marginal.
Unfortunately, income growth was not leveled out during the Great Recession. While the incomes of the top 1% were recovering, the incomes of the bottom 99% were plummeting.
Due to the prolonged period of lopsided income growth, the share of all income held by the top 1% in recent years has approached and will continue to surpass historical highs. It is especially skewed in New York City.
So what’s the problem?
The consequence of these trends is that the New York City economy is lopsided as income distribution has become increasingly polarized.
“A polarized income distribution can also have adverse consequences at the municipal level. Growing income disparities can diminish or destabilize the local tax base, can intensify patterns of class and racial segregation, and can undermine the social cohesion that makes urban neighborhoods interesting and comfortable places to live and work.” -John C. Liu, New York City Comptroller
A VISUAL REPRESENTATION OF NYC’S ECONOMIC GAP
The above and continuing pictures depict different views of Central Park. These diagrams with the emerald spires are the creation of artist/researcher Nickolay Lamm. He has created this diagram to represent the wealth inequality present in Manhattan. Each half of an inch is equal to $50,000 as an average salary earned. When we look at Lamm’s diagram we see that around Central Park, some of his emerald buildings can go as high as 8 inches, meaning that some of the average salary for some of those buildings in the area can go as high as $800,000 a year.
When we go up Manhattan into the Harlem, Inwood, and Morningside Heights areas, some parts of the diagram do not even make it up to half of an inch, meaning that some of these areas are having a hard time even making $25,000 a year. These areas also happen to be the poverty ridden area with multiple projects all over the area.
New York has always been a place of wealth, but when there is wealth there will always be someone who is suffering. Lamm’s graphs also serve to show that Manhattan is economically segregated as well. The opportunity of living in the downtown area is just a dream for many of the residents of north Manhattan.
WEALTH INEQUALITY – THE MAIN ISSUE
One can look at diagrams and numbers and still ignore the underlying moral issues that they demonstrates. Wealth inequality is not necessarily inherently evil; the problem lies in whether the playing field is level for all the players struggling to live and succeed in NYC. It’s undeniable that in New York City, just the same as in other “less developed” areas of the country, each resident does not receive the same, equal opportunities in life. The astoundingly huge wealth gap is caused by various factors: education costs, race, language fluency/barriers, one’s neighborhood, inherited wealth, etc. These imbalances affect not only the immediate disadvantaged people, but our society as a whole. John W. Schoen notes that “No society can expect to thrive if it doesn’t fully tap the talent and ability of its entire workforce — including those who happen to be born poor.”
In following posts, we will explore wealth inequality and the unequal opportunities that contribute to it by following neighborhoods in the wealthiest borough and the generally poorest and most underprivileged borough – Manhattan and the Bronx.
A TALE OF TWO CITIES
YouTube: Associated Press
The progress we have made…
“New York City is not the city we signed up for”
