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inequality

Building More Homes Isn’t Affordable Housing For Those Who Need It Most

November 14, 2021 | FlaglerLive | 13 Comments

Affordable? Not when the median price in Palm Coast is $330,000, as it was in October. (© FlaglerLive)

There is not a single state, metropolitan area or county in which a full-time minimum wage worker can afford the “fair market rent” for a two-bedroom home, as designated by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Even the smallest, most basic housing units are often unaffordable to people with very low incomes.

The Inherent Racism of Anti-Vaxx Movements

July 15, 2021 | FlaglerLive | 6 Comments

While many accuse anti-vaxxers of a selfish disdain for the health and safety of others, there is a underlying aspect of these movements that needs to be more widely recognized. Vaccine resistance movements have always been led by white, middle-class voices and promoted by structures of racial inequality.

Never-Before-Seen Records Reveal How the Wealthiest Avoid Income Tax

June 10, 2021 | FlaglerLive | 3 Comments

Jeff Bezos, the world's richest man, in the light blue shirt, meeting with then Secretary of Defense Ash Carter in 2016. (Department of Defense)

ProPublica has obtained a vast cache of IRS information showing how billionaires like Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Warren Buffett pay little in income tax compared to their massive wealth — sometimes, even nothing.

How Wealthy Towns Keep People With Section 8 Housing Vouchers Out

January 12, 2020 | FlaglerLive | 13 Comments

Unwelcome. (Ron Bieber)

Section 8 vouchers should give low-income people the opportunity to live outside poor communities. But discriminatory landlords, exclusionary zoning and the federal government’s hands-off approach leave recipients with few places to call home.

What You Need to Know About How Section 8 Really Works

January 12, 2020 | FlaglerLive | 1 Comment

Behind the facade of Section 8 housing. (Argentum Nitricum)

The Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher program is a form of government rent assistance. In 2018, upwards of 5 million people across the country lived in a household that used a voucher to help pay some or all of their rent.

Where Is Line Worker Barbie?

October 21, 2019 | FlaglerLive | 8 Comments

Mattel rolled out an extensive line of “Career Dolls,” including Barbie pilots, firefighters, and robotic engineers, to inspire its young patrons. But there’s one career you won’t find in this line: the typical working woman on the Mattel payroll.

The Rich Should Be Taxed Differently Than You and Me

September 17, 2019 | FlaglerLive | 14 Comments

A 10 percent surtax on incomes over $2 million should be levied on wages and salaries and investment income gained from wealth, including capital gains and dividends.

Laws Restricting Abortion Betray a Judgment: Women’s Sexuality Is Not Equal to Men’s

May 29, 2019 | FlaglerLive | 16 Comments

women abortion

Men regulating women’s bodies through restrictive abortion laws is the tip of an iceberg in which women’s sexuality is stigmatized, de-legitimized, silenced, controlled, and misunderstood, even by women themselves.

Time for $15 an Hour and a Union

April 9, 2019 | FlaglerLive | 26 Comments

After years of idling lawmakers, the idea now has more traction in Congress thanks to the recently introduced Raise the Wage Act, which would set a national minimum pay of $15 an hour by 2024.

Florida’s More Conservative Supreme Court Rejects Considering Minimum Wage Case

February 5, 2019 | FlaglerLive | 2 Comments

minimum wage florida supreme court

Tuesday’s actions could signal how the new majority will come down on future business-related disputes and could spark state lawmakers, whose annual session begins in March, to consider business-backed legislation to address issues that the old court had foiled.

Starbucks’s Howard Schultz: Another Billionaire Presidential Candidate Who Doesn’t Get It

February 3, 2019 | FlaglerLive | 11 Comments

Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz. (DOD)

Privileged candidates from Donald Trump to Howard Schultz don’t have any idea what life is really like for a single parent raising two kids while working and attending night classes.

MLK’s Dream Of Economic Justice Deferred By Increasing Inequalities

January 21, 2019 | FlaglerLive | 6 Comments

King foreshadowed that if we maintain our exploitative economic and political systems, then we’d get not only racial apartheid, but economic apartheid as well.

Understanding the Rise of France’s Yellow Jackets

December 11, 2018 | FlaglerLive | 5 Comments

Yellow jackets rising. (Dmitry Dzhus)

In a larger sense the Yellow Vests movement reflects longstanding neglect or exploitation of rural communities. Not only in France but in the US and much of Western Europe.

If Your Boss Makes Millions, It’s Not Because of the ‘Market’

August 23, 2018 | FlaglerLive | 5 Comments

Board rooms as CEOs' penthouses. (Peter Dutton)

On average, America’s CEOs make 312 times what their workers take home — and that has nothing to do with supply and demand. Simply put, markets don’t set executive pay. Board rooms do.

No Love for Working Families This Valentine’s Day

February 13, 2018 | FlaglerLive | 21 Comments

Paul Ryan tries to stick to the script. (Tony Alter)

A secretary gets an extra $1.50 a week from the GOP tax bill. The Koch brothers get an extra $27 million (minus a $500,000 thank-you note that went to Paul Ryan’s re-election committee).

Not To Worry, Estate Planners: Help For Struggling Millionaires Is On The Way

December 28, 2017 | FlaglerLive | 5 Comments

estate tax

The estate tax was just slashed to exempt millionaire families up to $22 million, a doubling of the previous exemption, which had covered 99.8 percent of taxpayers.

3 Reasons The Trump Tax Plan Is a Disgrace

December 17, 2017 | FlaglerLive | 32 Comments

trump tax plan

Robert Reich’s three-step guide on the rubbish of the Trump-Republican tax plan for when you confront your Republican Uncle Bob during the holidays.

What You Should Know About Trump’s Rollback Of Contraception Coverage

October 7, 2017 | FlaglerLive | 21 Comments

Rosaries before the pill. (© FlaglerLive)

The rules will make sweeping changes to the law’s requirement that most employers provide coverage of birth control with no out-of-pocket costs to women.

Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Second Bill of Rights: For Workers

September 4, 2017 | FlaglerLive | 18 Comments

FDR in Charlotte, NC

At the end of his last State of the Union message to Congress in 1944, Franklin Delano Roosevelt outlined an ambition plan for a “Second Bill of Rights” to ensure “”economic security and independence.”

Upwards Mobility Bunk: Don’t Lie to Poor Kids About Why They’re Poor, And Will Stay Poor

August 6, 2017 | FlaglerLive | 41 Comments

American social mobility, once a reality, is now a myth.

What happens when children born into poverty run face first into the crushing reality that the society they live in really isn’t that fair at all? Hard work has nothing to do with it.

In Some States, Sales Tax Holidays Lose Luster as Hype Overshadows Cost

August 6, 2017 | FlaglerLive | Leave a Comment

Tax holidays are more political gimmickry than necessity. (Giuseppe Milo)

Tax holidays don’t increase buying but merely concentrate it around specific dates. They’re regressive. They’re more political than useful: in Florida, the Legislature turned down Gov. Scott’s request for 10 days.

There’s No Good Reason for Your Boss to Make 347 Times What You Do

July 11, 2017 | FlaglerLive | 16 Comments

Rembrandt's 'Parable of the Rich Fool,' 1627. wealth inequality ceo pay

It’s business executives through outsized CEO pay — not movie stars, professional athletes, or heiresses — who grabbed the dollars that once flowed to the American worker.

Trump On Your Side? Repealing Obamacare Is a Tax Break For Rich at Poors’ Expense

January 24, 2017 | FlaglerLive | 39 Comments

obamacare repeal tax break inequality

If Obama’s health law is reversed, taxes will go down for the rich and up for the poor, while millions lose coverage. It is redistribution for the wealthy.

The American Dream, Canada-Bound

July 31, 2016 | FlaglerLive | 3 Comments

madawaska bridge maine bridge avenue

Our country has historically prided itself on being a socially mobile society, where your ability is more important than the race or class you’re born into. Not anymore. If you forgot to be born into a wealthy family, you’re better off today living in Canada or Northern Europe.

Give Tax and Spend a Chance

April 15, 2016 | FlaglerLive | 10 Comments

infrastructure tax and spend plans

The astonishing momentum of Bernie Sanders’s presidential candidacy reveals that millions of taxpayers are willing to entertain the idea that some of us aren’t taxed enough, and that it’s hurting the rest of us, argues Isaiah J. Poole.

Hillary Clinton’s $675,000 Paean to Marie Antoinette, and Goldman Sachs

February 11, 2016 | FlaglerLive | 9 Comments

hillary clinton

Hillary Clinton’s instinct for secrecy keeps getting her in trouble, while the sense of entitlement that she projects through her tone-deaf explanations betrays a lack of connection with the very people she claims to represent most.

Inequality in the Age of Uber

October 31, 2015 | FlaglerLive | 3 Comments

Jean pisani ferry

For fairness as well as for efficiency reasons, rights and benefits should be attached to individuals, not to companies or employment status, and should be fully portable across sectors and jobs.

Why You’re Getting Poorer: iPhones Aren’t The Economic Engine Cars and Electricity Were

August 31, 2015 | FlaglerLive | 3 Comments

diego rivera ford v-8

Robert Gordon argues rising standards of living brought by cars, indoor plumbing and electricity can;t be replaced by iPhones and the internet. Martin Feldstein disagrees.

Millionaires Make Up Nearly One-Third Of the Florida Legislature, More in Senate

July 13, 2015 | FlaglerLive | 6 Comments

florida legislature millionaires

Almost half of the Florida Senate is in the millionaires club, and more than two dozen senators saw their net worths grow in the past year.

Rick Gets Richer: Governor’s Net Worth Climbs $14 Million in 2014, Padded By Blind Trust

July 1, 2015 | FlaglerLive | 5 Comments

gov. rick scott net worth

Scott, who reportedly spent $13 million last year on his re-election, stated he generated $9.8 million last year from his blind trusts. Unlike last year, however, Scott did not disclose the assets of the blind trust in the most recent report.

Disney’s CEO Makes $248 a Minute as Some of His Employees Go Homeless on $8.03 an Hour

July 1, 2015 | FlaglerLive | 29 Comments

timon disney iger ceo pay

Even after a raise to $10 an hour, Disney employees can only expect to take home about $20,000 over the course of a year, not enough to live decently in Orlando. A $15-an-hour wage is more critical, argues Scott Klinger.

Guilty of Being Poor: Across the Nation, Courts Shake Down the Destitute

April 2, 2015 | FlaglerLive | 11 Comments

From fines targeting the poor to civil asset forfeiture, courts have mounted odious means of seizing cash and property from people not charged with any crime and who can’t afford legal defense.

Scott’s Magical ‘Tax Cut Calculator’ Obscures Nation’s 2nd Most Unfair Tax System

March 26, 2015 | FlaglerLive | 7 Comments

As Gov. Scott touts minor tax cuts for consumers, you could ask why that $43 a year saved on the cable bill compares so unfavorably with the $3-4 billion in corporate tax evasion he and his legislative allies let Florida’s biggest, most profitable businesses get away with each and every year, writes Daniel Tilson.

Visit Florida: Ferguson’s Seethe Is a Matter of Time for the Sunshine State

August 21, 2014 | FlaglerLive | 7 Comments

Rose-colored Florida is a cynical myth, the stuff of marketing brochures, a developers’ conspiracy of enticing fiction to make their cash registers ring. The real Florida is a bitter, brooding reality beyond sugarcoating, argues Stephen Goldstein.

Hiding Behind Barricades of Indifference as Income Disparities Corrode the Social Contract

May 25, 2014 | FlaglerLive | 53 Comments

Income inequalities are distorting the fiber of American society, but the issue has been treated more of a spectator sport than as a problem to be tackled. (Bert Kaufmann)

The very rich, who are already less and less in touch with the lives of ordinary Americans, will further barricade themselves to avoid having to witness the decline of a country that is no longer about ensuring a decent standard of living for the greatest number of people.

Martin Luther King’s Nightmare: The Inequality Behind Forbes’ Richest 400

January 19, 2014 | FlaglerLive | 17 Comments

The net worth of just 400 billionaires is on par with the collective wealth of our more than 14 million African- American households. Both groups possess some $2 trillion, about three percent of our national net worth, an economic injustice Martin Luther King would have decried, argues Bob Lord.

At Public Universities, More Aid Is Going To the Wealthy Than to The Neediest

September 15, 2013 | FlaglerLive | 16 Comments

Attention has long been focused on the lack of economic diversity at private colleges, especially at the most elite schools. What has been little discussed is how public universities, which enroll far more students, have gradually shifted their priorities — and a growing portion of their aid dollars — toward wealthier students.

“Junk Health Insurance,” Favored by Retailers and Restaurants, Will Survive Obamacare

August 26, 2013 | FlaglerLive | 14 Comments

Reform was supposed to do away with bare-bones health plans that could leave consumers who become seriously ill on the hook for tens of thousands of dollars in medical costs. It won’t, as plans with limited benefits may continue to be offered by some large businesses, especially those with low-paid workers such as restaurant chains and retailers.

Federal Government Approves Florida’s Medicaid Overhaul, Shifting Millions to HMOs

June 17, 2013 | FlaglerLive | 1 Comment

The announcement was a victory for Gov. Rick Scott and Republican lawmakers who approved the proposal to move to statewide Medicaid managed care in 2011, amid controversy about whether the changes would best serve the needs of low-income Floridians.

Florida Senate Kills Obamacare’s Medicaid Expansion, But 3rd-Way Alternative Remains

March 12, 2013 | FlaglerLive | 2 Comments

Florida lawmakers say they want to pursue an alternative plan, possibly expanding Healthy Kids, that would use federal money to help uninsured low-income people get coverage through private insurers. Democrats are not entirely opposed.

Obama II

January 21, 2013 | FlaglerLive | 18 Comments

Far from a dud, as these second inaugurals tend to be, Obama’s today was bracing in its realism, and hopeful, ironically, for having finally shed the imagery of hope for hope’s sake, replacing it with an agenda for equality, little heard of since the days of the New Deal and the Great Society.

Florida’s Doctors Are Nation’s 3rd Worst When It Comes to Accepting Medicaid Patients

August 7, 2012 | FlaglerLive | 1 Comment

Only 59 percent of doctors in Florida accept accept new Medicaid patients, well below a national average 69 percent. Better reimbursements would improve both rates, but that’s not about to happen in Florida, which is rejecting increased federal aid.

We Don’t Need Another Payroll Tax Cut

December 15, 2011 | Pierre Tristam | 10 Comments

obama tax cut payroll taxes republicans unemployment

We can all afford less tax coddling and more fiscal responsibility. But don’t expect to hear that from allegedly conservative Republican and our blandly, irresponsibly centrist president, who’s bribing his way to a second term.

Obama’s Roosevelt Envy–And Ours

December 9, 2011 | Pierre Tristam | 23 Comments

Obama’s version of Roosevelt Lite won’t cut it if he can’t back up his rhetoric with a more serious program of defending the middle class against corporate predators and rich-class irresponsibility.

The 99% Answer the 53%

October 15, 2011 | FlaglerLive | 45 Comments

In what has turned into one of the most virally circulated pieces of the year, Max Udargo explains the Occupy Wall Street movement to a conservative critic who calls himself part of the 53 percent.

Occupy Jacksonville: Video and Reports of Saturday’s Occupy Wall Street-Inspired Protest

October 8, 2011 | FlaglerLive | 21 Comments

Occupy Jacksonville at hemming Plaza Saturday drew between 200 and 300 people, including participants from Palm Coast and Flagler County. Video of the protest, updates and pictures.

Incomes at Their Worst Since 1996, Poverty At a 52-Year High, Inequality Deepening

September 14, 2011 | FlaglerLive | 19 Comments

Florida’s poverty rate rose to the highest level in 16 years, with 3 million residents—one in six—living under the poverty line in 2010. Nationally, most economic and health insurance indicators are worsening to historic levels.

Debt Ceiling Fallacies: How to Pay Down The Deficit Without Really Trying

July 17, 2011 | FlaglerLive | 17 Comments

The debt limit debate could have some catastrophic consequences for the economy, writes Kyle Russell, but politicians aren’t telling the whole story, and the fix isn’t nearly as bad as it may sound.

Flagler Rep. Bill Proctor: Public University Tuition Should Go Up by More than 15% A Year

July 14, 2011 | FlaglerLive | 5 Comments

Bill Proctor likes his net worth: $2.56 million.

Bill proctor, the St. Augustine Republican and private-college president, says tuition increases at public universities should be greater than 15% so Florida’s tuition costs can reach the national average faster.

They Feel Your Pain: Florida Legislature Home to 51 Millionaires

July 14, 2011 | FlaglerLive | 28 Comments

Millionaires make up almost half of the 40-member Florida Senate and nearly one-third of the 120-member Florida House. Legislators are paid $29,697 a year, with presiding officers making $41,181 a year.

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