Wash DC's Rich-Poor Gap One of Widest in US--Study

[BaysideLiberal]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The income gap between rich and poor in Washington, D.C., is significantly wider than nearly every other large city in the United States, according to a report released on Thursday.

The study from the D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute, a research group focused on issues impacting low- and middle-income people, said economic development in the capital benefited the top fifth of the city's population in the 1990s. It did little for the poor.

The average income of the richest 20 percent of Washington, D.C., households grew by 35.7 percent during the last decade, while the average income of the bottom 20 percent rose 3.3 percent, the report said.

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=domesticNews&storyID=5747051

[GoldenOldie]

1. The Power Elite

of DC need the sweat of the unwashed to do all those dirty little jobs that they and theirs have risen from

[tom_paine]

2. Of course Imperial Capital is like that. More Totalitarian than the rest

of the Empire.

It is the SEAT oif Amerikan Totalitarianism.

I would no more expect Imperial Capital DC to be more or even equally as free or equitable as I would expect Moscow to be more egalitarian than the rest of the Soviet Countryside.

[JayS]

3. High rate of violent crime also. Is this related? Nah! :) n/t

n/t

[demnan]

4. Because of many factors,

including bad social services and federal government neglect, D.C. lost its black and white middle class to the suburbs in the sixties through the eighties. But I see a lot of people trying to come back. The problem is, with the housing market so high in many areas of Washington, can they afford to?

[LiberalEsto]

5. No kidding! (DC income gap)

Did they just figure this out? Recently? Amazing! How very clever of them.
I could have told them about the obscene income disparity in DC after attending my first anti-Vietnam War protest back in 1969, as a college freshman. You have Georgetown mansions and gracious homes in NorthWest, and then you have the poverty-riddled areas of South East and North East that tourists never see. And the rich are so disgustingly rich and spend their money on such asinine things -- gold doggie dishes and so on, while regarding the city's poor as invisible. Washington DC has been a national disgrace for a very long time.

[JayS]

6. The Capitol should be moved to Luckenbach.

It wouldn't matter if you have a lot or little money as there is not much there to spend it on anyway. :)

http://www.luckenbachtexas.com/

[silverpatronus]

7. i live in dc 9 months out of the year...

and i can attest to this. SW and NW west of logan circle are where the people with money live. NE, SE and NW east of logan circle are appalling. you see it when you ride the g2 bus...going from howard to georgetown is like going from night to day. the biggest problem with DC is that it's not properly represented. it gets shafted so badly for social programmes and the like. a lot of the social programmes in DC are staffed etc by the area universities, especially tutoring programmes and the like.

DC needs representation, like yesterday.

[spooky3]

9. I agree. Residents desperately deserve to have 2 Senators and a Rep.

More people live in the District than in Wyoming and other Repug. states.

[gatlingforme]

8. I guess Bushes programs are a big hit there.

[spooky3]

10. seriously, didn't the gap widen when * and friends moved here?