Interesting economic facts about Baltimore
I used to work there before David Simon blew through, so I've always been kind of fascinated by the nation's fetishization of Baltimore's alleged poverty.
(These data are all taken from the American Cities' Business Journal's report on income inequality from last year.) (Also all "rest of the nation" comparisons are limited to cities larger than 100,000.) (Also also, the US Census is always a great place to double-check and expand on things like this.)
Baltimore's household poverty rate is 11.3% (with a 23.8% personal poverty rate); this is 1 percentage point below the national average. Let that sink in for a second. Baltimore's poverty rate is lower than most cities'. (This kind of reminds me of how Ferguson has a lower crime rate than most US towns.) In Milwaulkee it's 29%. (I use Milwaulkee as a comparison a lot because they're roughly the same size and have similar industrial histories.)
In Baltimore, the top 20% of earners take home 48% of income. In Milwaulkee it's 49%. In Oklahoma City it's 50%. The national average is 49%.
The GINI index (a measure of income inequality; higher means more inequality) in Baltimore is .4498, which is above the nation's index as a whole of .4102 -- but that's nearly always true for cities (Portland's is .4443, and Seattle's is .4458). I want that to sink in too: Portland and Seattle have GINI indexes that are essentially indistinguishable from Baltimore's, whereas Miami, Durham, Charlotte, Oklahoma City, Chicago, etc. are significantly higher (in the .49's) and places like NYC and SFO are off the charts (in the .50's).
Baltimore also had 5 low income families for every high income family (the "LI/HI" ratio), which is nationally very low (a low LI/HI is a good LI/HI). Buffalo, NY has 18. Modesto, CA has 20. Youngstown, OH has 44(!).
Baltimore has horrible, corrupt, violent police officers and high crime, but it is neither a poor nor a high-inequality city by national standards.
= new reply since forum marked as read
In a just world.......
but yes, in our current reality, the system has created a difficult problem, given we cannot even give adequate employment to people now.
And I think I read that the current prison pop. was in the millions....some article about USA being #1 in the world.
rah, rah, retch.....
Then again I'd love to see somebody put forward social work, rehabilitation, and jobs training for released drug offenders as a massive "stimulus" public works program.
