The 25 Most Unequal Cities In America (Marxism Alert)

businessinsider.com ^ | Oct. 11, 2010, 12:41 PM | Gus Lubin

[facedodge]

America's third-world-esque income gap is wide and getting wider. But in some cities the disparity is especially bad, according to Census data. We picked out the 25 metro areas where the top quintile has the greatest share of the income. Many of these cities are liberal college towns in poor rural areas. Others are retirement hotspots in again, poor rural areas. Four of the top ten are in Texas, including George W. Bush's Midland.

[facedodge]

National Average: The top quintile gets 50.3% of the income.

1. Bridgeport, Conn. metro area
2. Morgantown, W.Va. metro area
3. Naples, Fla. metro area
4. Gainesville, Fla. metro area
5. College Station, Texas metro area
6. Midland, Texas metro area
7. Tyler, Texas metro area
8. Brownsville, Texas metro area
9. New York, N.Y. metro area
10. Miami, Fla. metro area
11. Athens, Ga. metro area
12. Sebastian, Fla. metro area
13. Lawrence, Kansas metro area
14. McAllen, Texas metro area
15. Port St. Lucie, Fla. metro area

See the article for the whole list and other fun facts.

[facedodge]

The Poorest American Cities of 2008 (1-10)

1. Detroit, 33.3% in poverty—Democrat Mayor for the last 52 years
2. Cleveland, 30.5% in poverty—Democrat Mayor for the last 20 years
3. Buffalo, 30.3% in poverty—Democrat Mayor for the last 43 years
4. Newark, 26.1% in poverty—Democrat Mayor for the last 102 years
5. Miami, 25.6% in poverty—Democrat Mayor for the last 52 years
6. Fresno, 25.5% in poverty—Republican Mayor for the last 13 years
7. Cincinnati, 25.1% in poverty—Democrat Mayor for the last 29 years
8. Toledo, 24.7% in poverty—Democrat Mayor for the last 20 years
9. El Paso, 24.3% in poverty—Democrat Mayor for the last 120 years
10. Philadelphia, 24.1% in poverty—Democrat Mayor for the last 57 years

[Lost Highway]

I hear Bono (lead singer of U2) tell a story when asked what made America great. Here’s his response. “In America, people look at the guy in the giant house on the hill and say to themselves ‘One day I’m going to live like that’. In Ireland we look at the guy in the giant house on the hill and say ‘One day I’m gonna get that son of a bitch’.” Sadly we are becoming more European by the minute.

[listenhillary]

This usually corresponds to how badly the local population is urging their government to set aside green areas, make it hard to build anything.

What group is responsible for doing this? Why are they the ones offended when it is their own actions that drive the poor from their homes and make housing unfordable?

[Russ]

Of course Midland, Tx is in the list. I would have been shocked if it hadn't been.

[jospehm20]

“The top quintile gets 50.3% of the income.”

And the top 25% of earners pay 86% of all federal income taxes. What is the point?

[Opinionated Blowhard]

Four of the top ten are in Texas, including George W. Bush's Midland.

Evil Bush strikes again. And you have to love that chart--putting all the Libs tropes on graph as if its scientific. Why don't they put Iraq War deaths on the chart too?

[Russ]

Funny, I thought Chicago would be right up there.

[Dick Vomer]

Ping

[dangus]

I don’t think anyone should be surprised that in an oil town, the top quintile take a large portion of the income: does anyone really expect that engineers and executives make considerably more money?

What should shame the left, however, is the predominance of college towns: Morgantown, Gainesville, College Station, Athens. After all, aren’t these supposed to be Rousseau-type villages? (Of course not... professors SHOULD make more than cafeteria workers. It’s the American way. The irony is only that these professors espouse Marxist ideals.)

[FLCowboy,]

Of interest is the number of college towns that are listed. The high cost of higher education is attributable to the high salaries of professors, administrators, coaches, and aid programs.

[Sax]

And retirement enclaves. Sebastian and PSL, especially before the housing boom, were really low cost of living areas on the FL coast. So retirees could get warm, beach or near-beach living and stretch their retirement dollars.

They’re both there, south of the Space Coast but north of South FL and had been sparesly populated (but has since grown a decent amount - not much in the way of industry though.) And smack in the middle between those two cities is Vero beach - some big money retirement there.

[Magnatron]

Seems a lot of these are liberal meccas. Go figure.

[Peter from Rutland]

I see article from this source posted here all the time about how the economic world is going to end any day now. I ignored them before, now I know why.

[GeronL]

Washington DC is the most unequal. by far.

[Leftism is Mentally Deranged]

How about the rich democrats giving up some of their wealth to “redistribute” the wealth?

[Le Chien Rouge]

A breakdown of zip codes should be listed also:

1) 10021- Upper West Side Manhattan
2) 20007—wealthy DC
3) 90210—need I say
4) 60614-Obama’s zip in Chicago
5) 06831-Greenwich CT

All wealthy democrat zips residing quite close to some of the POOREST zip codes in the US.

[afraidfortherepublic]

Hey, lay off Fresno, CA. It has an enormous, illegal population (hence the poverty). It’s hardly the fault of the Republican Mayor. More the fault of the Feds for not securing the border. When you go to Home Depot early in the morning (when the contractors are purchasing materials) you hear only Spanish spoken throughout the store.

[yldstrk]

income gap does not automatically translate into bad unless one is a dirty pinko commie

[Ann Archy]

In Washington, EVERYBODY is paid VERY WELL by us, the TAXPAYERS!! They are WAY ABOVE the natl average in wages...>WAY ABOVE...PLUS BENEFITS!!