Free Republic

The mid-1990s feel like a different world. In the 30 years since, the global economy has shifted dramatically, across sectors and markets.But headline stats like GDP, GDP per capita, or growth rates don’t always reflect what’s happening at the individual level.So, has life actually improved over time?To help answer that, Visual Capitalist's Pallavi Rao visualizes figures from Our World in Data to show how daily median incomes have changed in 20 of the world’s largest economies from 1994 to 2024.All figures are in PPP-adjusted International dollars per person. They are also adjusted for inflation, taxes, and benefits.ℹ️ PPP-adjusted International dollars...

Tens of thousands of New York City residents have fled the Northeast for warmer climes in a five-year period — taking nearly $14 billion worth of income out of the Empire State. A new report by the nonpartisan Citizens Budget Commission found around 30,000 Big Apple dwellers moved to Florida between 2017 and 2022, many of them ending up in Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties. The report chalked up the mass migration to factors including lingering effects of the pandemic, as well as general affordability, quality-of-life concerns and safety. The city has seen a reduction in its adjusted gross income...

Inflation fell to zero in March, a welcome reprieve after persistent inflation under President Biden and the best reading in nearly five years, even as consumer spending accelerated sharply and incomes rose solidly — a powerful signal of economic improvement at the start of the Trump administration. The Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge, the personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index, was flat in March, according to data released Wednesday by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Core PCE — which strips out food and energy — was also unchanged, marking the tamest monthly inflation reading since early 2020. Compared with a...

President Donald Trump has stated multiple times that he wants to eliminate income taxes and replace them with tariffs. Such a decision would be one of the most significant changes to the tax code in decades, and it could help Americans save a lot of money. The government still needs to collect funds, so the tax code could shift to a combination of tariffs and sales tax. However, even if the IRS isn’t eliminated, Trump has floated the idea of no one paying taxes if they earn less than $150,000 per year. According to the TaxAct tax bracket calculator, a...

Mississippi is bringing back a “competitive” edge with Gov. Tate Reeves’ (R) signing of legislation to phase out the state income tax, and he discussed what this means for the state during an appearance on Breitbart News Saturday. “So this is House Bill 1 that I signed into law on Thursday afternoon. And honestly, Matt, it’s really what I have called Mississippi’s one big, beautiful bill, and it is a bill that does a couple of different things,” Reeves began, explaining that it reduces the sales tax on groceries across the state and, over a period of time, eliminates the...

How much do you need to make to be considered middle class in the U.S.? According to research by SmartAsset, that can range from $36,000 to $200,000, depending on where you live.This graphic, via Visual Capitalist's Bruno Venditti, illustrates the income needed to be considered middle class in every U.S. state. Middle class in this graphic is defined as earning between two-thirds and double the median household income. SmartAsset compiled the data as of February 2025.To Be Middle ClassThe median household income in the U.S. is approximately $75,000, with half of Americans earning less. States with high urbanization and economic...

The average American’s net worth across all states is nearly $595,000. However, wealth levels vary among states alongside cost of living and other factors. As Visual Capitalist's Alejandra Dander notes, according to anonymized data from nearly 2 million Empower Personal Dashboard™ users, we highlight the top ten states with the highest average net worth per person.A closer look at average net worthNet worth is calculated by taking what a person owns (their assets) and subtracting what they owe (their debts). Here are the leading states by net worth as of September 2024.Connecticut has the highest net worth of nearly $920,000,...

Many Americans continue to find homeownership financially out of reach due to rising house prices and stagnant wages, among other contributing factors. But which U.S. cities are the least affordable?One way to assess housing affordability is through the home price-to-income ratio, which measures the ratio of the median home price to the median household income.This map, via Visual Capitalist's Kayla Zhu, shows the home price-to-income ratio of 54 large cities (population over one million) in the U.S. using data from Construction Coverage’s analysis of Zillow and U.S. Census Bureau data.Housing Affordability Worst in Coastal U.S. CitiesBelow, we show the home...

Social Security is among the rare topics that can make Republicans and Democrats see eye to eye, according to a new survey. In Pennsylvania, people on both sides of the aisle agree that it’s time to raise payroll taxes on high-income earners, cut benefits for the wealthiest retirees, and even push the full retirement age from 67 to 68 if that’s what it takes to keep Social Security from running out of cash. A new poll conducted by the University of Maryland’s Program For Public Consultation found majorities from both political parties want to see lawmakers tackle Social Security’s looming...

Three years ago, San Francisco launched an experiment to give 150 pregnant Black and Pacific Islander women $1,000 a month, no strings attached, for the duration of their pregnancy and six months after the birth. *** Now, that effort is almost certainly about to come to a screeching halt. And another guaranteed income program to assist San Francisco’s transgender residents — who are 18 times more likely to experience homelessness than the general population — already has been shut down. Participants were only given a month’s notice before being cut off. *** So, how could two successful programs, lauded by...

The Evanston, Illinois, city council on Monday expanded eligibility of its guaranteed basic income program that it previously touted as a model that other municipalities should follow. Evanston's city council voted 5-4 to increase the age restriction for children in the program. Per The Chicago Tribune, the vote stemmed from prior concern that the program was not reaching enough residents within Evanston’s tract 8092. (According to the federal government, "census tracts are small, relatively permanent statistical subdivisions of a county.") The program did not have as many applicants as expected, with only 60 households participating with 90 spots left. Before...

The Center Square) – More than 87,000 people moved out of Illinois taking with them nearly $10 billion in income, according to the latest Internal Revenue Service data. For the last six years, the total lost adjusted gross income is more than $47.5 billion. For nearly a decade, annual population estimates from the U.S. Census show Illinois losing population. For well over a year, Gov. J.B. Pritzker has denied the state’s population decline, saying the Census is getting it wrong. In May, he doubled down. “You should take what I’m saying as truth that actually when we count people, it...

POMONA, Calif. (KABC) -- The city of Pomona is seeing growth with new apartments and new businesses. There are some people, however, who can't afford basic needs. "In a city like Pomona, where you have a poverty rate of about 16, 16.5% - people are struggling. People are having a very difficult time being able to just have housing," Mayor Tim Sandoval said. The city wants to give some residents stimulus checks, a guaranteed income program to help with living expenses. It's called the Household Universal Grant (HUG) program.

Earlier in 2023, top American lawmaker Rich McCormick, while addressing the US House of Representatives, said that Indian-Americans constitute about one per cent of the US population but pay about six per cent of the taxes. Does it ring a bell? Interestingly, Indians are the highest-earning ethnic group in the US — ahead of people from countries like China and Japan. How many Indians are there in the US and how much are they earning? The number of people identifying as Asian in the United States nearly tripled in the past three decades, and Asians are now the fastest-growing of...

DOWNTOWN — Mayor Brandon Johnson is putting $30 million more in federal pandemic relief dollars toward a revived guaranteed income program that will give more Chicagoans $500 monthly cash payments. Johnson is also committing more money for violence prevention, rapid rehousing and other initiatives as he revamps the city’s approach to spending what remains of the $1.9 billion in pandemic financial aid the city received in 2021 under the American Rescue Plan Act.

In a recent interview with MSNBC, Galloway discussed the current challenges facing young adults, remarking, “For the first time in our nation's history, a 30-year-old man or woman isn't doing as well as his or her parents were at 30, that is the social compact breaking down.” According to a 2016 study from Harvard-based research initiative Opportunity Insights, over 90% of children born in the 1940s grew up to earn more than their parents at age 30. However, for children born in the 1980s, only half managed to outearn their parents. Galloway, said the economy is "purposely" transferring money to...

n a couple of weeks, California's Public Utilities Commission will vote on whether or not to adopt a new fixed charge for electricity, one that will likely be based on income.When I first wrote about this proposal a year ago, the utilities were suggesting that fee could be as high as $85 a month for some households. That's not including whatever the utilities charge for actual usage of electricity. The new fixed fee as proposed was essentially an income tax being paid via your electric bill. Since then, the proposal has been scaled back quite a bit but some version...

ALBANY – Gov. Kathy Hochul and her husband, Bill, brought home much more bacon in 2023 than the year before. The couple made around $2 million in adjusted gross income in 2023, up a staggering $1 million from 2022, media reports covering the pair’s tax returns indicate. The tax return reportedly shows Hochul, who is in the second year of her first full term, and her husband paid $610,000 in federal taxes and $123,090 in state taxes.

If you plan to deposit $10,000 or more into your checking account, there are a few things you should consider first. By law, banks have to report deposits that exceed a certain amount. Not only that, but many bank accounts come with maximum deposit restrictions. You may also be subject to certain fees when making such a large deposit. If you frequently make large deposits, you should also watch out for any potential scams or fraudulent activity. But even if this is a one-time thing, it’s still important to know about these factors and how they might affect you. Banks...

The cost to afford a median-priced home has increased at twice the rate that the average household income has risen as inflation and high interest rates inflame housing expenses, according to Redfin. The median monthly home payment in February was $2,838, up 12% year-over-year, while the median household income was just $84,072, an increase of 6% over the last year, according to Redfin. Over the past decade, the income needed to afford a home has tracked closely with the median household income until around the start of 2022, when the amount of household income needed skyrocketed to its current median...