Blue line is median household income in the United States.
Look what has happened since 2008.
Source: Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis
Oh, and if you are curious, income inequality (as measured by the gini coefficient) is much greater within the District of Columbia than in any of the 50 states.And to broaden our scope to include the area surrounding the District, the US Census Bureau used its 2010 data to conclude that of the 16 U.S. counties with median household income greater than $90,000, ten (including the top three) are in the Washington Metropolitan Area.
THC believes this explains why the Department of the Treasury in its recent rulemaking (see, 22 CFR 193.6(c)(iii)) officially defined Americans residing outside this area as "Chumps".
With the President's latest in a long sequence of "pivots" being towards income inequality, THC believes this data suggests where he might best direct his focus.
Well you can believe I'm not surprised by any of this. As for the cause, though, I can tell you this is all about the huge surge of gentrification in all U.S. cities in the last decade, not just DC. So I think the interesting comparison is to other cities, not to states. All I've found is this 2009 list, where it doesn't place in the top 10 (but NYC does):
ReplyDeletehttp://www.usnews.com/news/best-cities/slideshows/the-13-cities-with-the-greatest-economic-inequality
Now, what I'd really like to see is how the Gini coefficient of urban areas has changed, compared to non-urban areas. I think THAT'S the figure where you'll really see how gentrification has taken off.
- Nick