BOOK REVIEW
The Big Sort, Authors: Bill Bishop and Robert Cushing.
Polarized America: The Dance of Ideology and Unequal Riches, Authors: Nolan McCarty, Keith Poole and Howard Rosenthal.
By Peter Orszag – A new study provides a hint about one possible force behind this political segregation: Americans are increasingly choosing to live near people in their own income bracket. According to research by Sean Reardon and Kendra Bischoff of Stanford University, in 1970, almost two-thirds of American families lived in middle-income neighborhoods. By 2007, only 44 percent did. The share of those living in a poor neighborhood, in the same period, more than doubled, from 8 percent to 17 percent. So did the share living in an affluent neighborhood — from 7 percent to 14 percent.
As Reardon and Bischoff conclude, “The increasing isolation of the affluent from low- and moderate-income families means that a significant proportion of society’s resources are concentrated in a smaller and smaller proportion of neighborhoods.” A separate study, by Tara Watson of Williams College, concluded that trends in income inequality can fully explain recent increases in economic segregation. more> http://is.gd/y9eOuS
Related articles
- Middle-class areas shrink as income gap grows, report finds (mercurynews.com)
- Fewer Americans Living In Middle-Class Areas As Country Divides Between Rich, Poor: Study (huffingtonpost.com)
- How Occupy stopped the supercommittee | Dean Baker (guardian.co.uk)
the Net economy 