Income shrinking for "poor" workers/families while rich grow richer. . .

Clearly, our best efforts aren't working.  And, I've about decided we aren't working on the right things.  The problem of declining earning power among your low-income neighbors will not be solved via charity.  Only large, systemic reforms and investments will move the income needle in the necessary direction. 

Read this troubling report and give me your feedback.

Dallas income gap widens, Brookings study reports

Household earnings at top of scale 12 times those of working poor

By MICHAEL E. YOUNG                

The income gap continues to grow between affluent Americans and those struggling to get by, with Dallas households near the top of the scale earning more than 12 times as much as those broadly defined as the “working poor,” according to a new study by the Brookings Institution.

The study compared household income of those in the 95th percentile — about $220,000 in Dallas — with those in the 20th percentile, roughly $18,000 a year, said Alan Berube, a senior fellow at Brookings and deputy director of its metropolitan policy program.

The growing disparity isn’t just about rising incomes for upper-class households, Berube said, but rather about shrinking paychecks in poorer households, whose incomes remain 13 percent below levels prior to the recession of 2007-09.

 

Read the entire article here.