A recent policy brief from the NC Budget and Tax Center analyzes the characteristics of the 10 North Carolina counties that have experienced “persistent poverty,” meaning that they have had a countywide poverty rate of at least 20 percent in every decennial census since 1970.
As of 2000, there were 10 counties in North Carolina that fit the definition of persistently poor: Bertie, Bladen, Columbus, Halifax, Martin, Northampton, Pitt, Robeson, Tyrrell and Washington counties.
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All of North Carolina’s persistently poor counties are located in the eastern region of the state. This area is part of the northern tip of the Black Belt, a crescent of economically distressed communities that stretches south to Louisiana. The challenges for these communities can be traced back to the economic oppression of slavery and the economic exclusion of segregation and discrimination. As a result, these communities have long struggled with a lack of connection to the opportunities that generate improved economic outcomes such as education, employment, infrastructure, and technology. More recently, these communities have been impacted by economic restructuring—the dramatic decline in the state’s manufacturing employment base and the rise of low‐paying service‐sector jobs—and the need to adapt to today’s highly competitive economy.
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The lack of employment opportunities has meant these communities have little to offer residents in terms of good jobs and opportunities for advancement. Often, those residents who achieve middle‐class status leave the Black Belt to continue their post‐secondary education or seek higher‐paying jobs.
Rortybomb summarizes recent data about changes in “the concentration of capital gains and dividend income.” The post includes the chart below, which nicely documents the extent to which the richest tax filers rely on income from capital gains and dividends.
Over at Crooked Timber, John Quiggin aggressively refutes arguments in defense of “entrenched inequality.” From the conclusion of a post that refutes seven arguments in favor of inequalities in income and wealth …
…As Mitt Romney’s tax returns show, wealthy Americans have the rules rigged in their favor from day one. And that’s assuming they obey the rules. Unlike the poor, they can mostly cheat with impunity. In these circumstances, it’s unsurprising that US inequality is so deeply entrenched. The only surprise is the suddenness with which the facts have become common knowledge.
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It remains to be seen how this will play out electorally, but there are at least some promising signs. Eight months ago, the situation in the US, seemed if anything even worse than in Europe. Obama seemed determined to capitulate to the Repubs, with the support of the entire centrist establishment, still committed to the idea of bipartisanship. Political discussion was dominated by the claims of the Tea Party, essentially identical to those of the European Austerians. The debt-ceiling debacle, the success of Occupy Wall Street and the recent Romney revelations have changed that. First, the fact that the Repubs are extreme reactionaries, uninterested in any kind of bipartisan compromise, has finally sunk in to all but the most obtuse centrists. Second, the point that the rich play by different rules from the rest of us has been made glaringly obvious.
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