NYC: The wealthiest 1% has 44% of all income

[^_^ 5,021]

That New York City has extreme wealth and extreme poverty, and lots of both, seems like a law of nature, older than the subway or the Brooklyn Bridge. While there is a lot of truth in that, the city has not always had the extremes to the extent it has them now. Today, the wealthiest 1 percent of city residents has 44 percent of all income in the city, a share nearly four times as great as 30 years ago.

http://www.gothamgazette.com/article/economy/20110118/21/3452

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

From the source study of the so-called nonpartisan Fiscal Policy Institute:

From a little under 10 percent in 1980, the top one percent in New York State saw its share rise to 17 percent in 1990, and to 28 percent in 2000. Then, after dipping briefly during the early 2000s recession, the top one percent’s share shot up again to reach 35 percent in 2007, the latest year for which data are available.

http://www.fiscalpolicy.org/FPI_GrowTogetherOrPullFurtherApart_20101213.pdf (page 3)

San Francisco is having the same problem, with a small wealthy class, a very large underclass, and a diminishing middle class. Similar geography, being more concentrated to a peninsula/island and relatively high real estate values may be the cause. Such is plantation life in a Liberal Mecca.

Edited January 24, 2011 by Some Old Guy

[mawilson 2,133]

Billionaires have to live somewhere, you know. They're not going to live in Bumblefuck, Alabama.

[Jenn! 918]

Why do they show NYS on that graph - it's obviously driven by NYC.

[mawilson 2,133]

Why do they show NYS on that graph - it's obviously driven by NYC.

Is it? A lot of wealthy people live upstate and Long Island (the Hamptons, etc)

[SMR 368]

Is it? A lot of wealthy people live upstate and Long Island (the Hamptons, etc)

I guess that depends on your definition of NYC. I live solidly in upstate New York and consider all those places to be part of NYC. But regardless of the actual definition, the graph clearly supports Jenn's point. It seems to track pretty well. They certainly control NYS politics.

I also agree with the points made about real estate. The middle class quickly evaporates or moves when a reasonable residence costs more than half of a middle class salary. You either move up in salary and leave the middle class, or paying for a place to live puts you in the poor house and you leave the middle class (or you move).

[^_^ 5,021]

I guess that depends on your definition of NYC. I live solidly in upstate New York and consider all those places to be part of NYC. But regardless of the actual definition...

There is only one actual definition of NYC. Just because you decide to make a definition up and include the Hamptons and Westchester in NYC doesn't make it so.

[mawilson 2,133]

There is only one actual definition of NYC. Just because you decide to make a definition up and include the Hamptons and Westchester in NYC doesn't make it so.

NYC = Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and Staten Island