First, the numbers for homicide, aggravated assault, robbery, burglary and motor vehicle theft…Next, a comparison of Oakland and U.S. crime rates… Verdict: …
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Politics and Economics
What would Make Redlining a Root Cause of the Black-White Homeownership Gap (If It is One), Part III
The gap in Black-white homeownership rates recently reached 30.1% in the U,S. Per Jung Hyun Choi of The Urban Institute, three factors explain around 80% of this gap: difference in Black-white income (31%), marital status (27%), and credit scores (22%).
Andre Perry and David Harshbarger of the Brookings Institute have already crunched those numbers. To quote:
…approximately 11 million Americans (10,852,727) live in once-redlined areas, according to the latest population data from the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (2017). This population is majority-minority but not majority-Black, and, contrary to conventional perceptions, Black residents also do not form a plurality in these areas overall. The Black population share is approximately 28%, ranking third among the racial groups who live in formerly redlined areas, behind white and Latino or Hispanic residents…While still a tremendously large population, the approximately 3 million Black residents in redlined areas account for just 8% of all non-Latino or Hispanic Black Americans.
Proximate cause (direct cause): Occurs immediately prior to the [outcome of interest]; directly results in its occurrence and, if eliminated or modified, would have prevented the undesired outcome
Root Cause: One of multiple factors (events, conditions or organizational factors) that created the proximate cause and subsequent undesired outcome. Typically multiple root causes contribute to an undesired outcome [my italics].
Root Cause Analysis: A method primarily used to identify the underlying cause of an incident or issue, and more effectively mitigate or prevent future similar incidents.
— So the question for this post is: how would we know whether the historical practice of redlining created a causal pathway that led directly to the current Black-White homeownership gap in the US? In other words, was redlining one of multiple factors responsible for the proximate causes of the Black-White homeownership gap?
Per the Fed, in 1990, whites owned 90% of US household wealth, with Blacks owning 4%, Hispanics 2%, and Other (mostly Asian) 2%. In 2023, whites owned 82% of US household wealth, with Blacks owning 4%, Hispanics 3%, and Other 10%.
As a consequence of these trends, young adults make up more of the lower portions of the income and wealth distributions than they used to. And that’s probably ok, because all the knowledge, skills and experience they’re acquiring in their 20s will come in handy when they finally set their minds to serious wealth-building in their 30s.
Per the US Census Bureau, here are the highest levels of education achieved by Americans in 2022: 37% have a bachelor’s degree or higher, 25% some college or an associates degree, 28% high school diploma, and 9% less than a high school diploma or its equivalent. And per the Federal Reserve, Americans with college degrees or higher own 71% of the country’s wealth…
A question I have is how much wealth-stagnation in the lower income groups has to do with education and marriage trends. Specifically, age at first marriage has increased by six years since 1990 and the percentage of Americans with four-year college degrees or higher has almost doubled, from 21% in 1990 to 38% in 2022. As a consequence of these trends, young adults make up more of the lower portions of the income and wealth distributions than they used to.
The Federal Reserve provides information on the distribution of U.S. household wealth in the form of interactive charts and tables. These allow users to explore household wealth components, shares and levels across various groups and time. The information was last updated in September 2023. This post will cover wealth assets and trends by wealth percentile group. First, a very brief explanation of terms.
What do migrants want? Opinions vary:
“Settler colonialism is distinct from migration because immigrants aim to integrate into an existing society, not replace it.” Wikipedia/Settler Colonialism
“Like many immigrant groups, Africans are keen to preserve their cultural identity and ensure their children do not replace their traditional values with foreign ideas.” Africa Renewal/United Nations publication
So what is it? Assimilation to the new or preservation of the old? I suspect for most immigrants it’s a combination of the two.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) defines Palestine refugees as:
“…persons whose normal place of residence was Palestine during the period 1 June 1946 to 15 May 1948, and who lost both home and means of livelihood as a result of the 1948 conflict…The descendants of Palestine refugee males, including adopted children, are also eligible for registration.”
“Xi’s statement that the Chinese “firmly oppose hegemony and power politics in all their forms” might also seem ironic to Taiwan, which suffers regular large-scale displays of military force aimed to intimidate them; Canada, which saw China detain two of its citizens in an attempt to coerce Ottawa into rejecting a U.S. extradition request for wanted Chinese executive Meng Wanzhou; or Australia, against whom China’s government imposed heavy economic sanctions after Canberra called for an investigation of the origins of COVID-19.” - The Diplomat June 01, 2023
These excerpts are from: “To Fix Democracy, First Figure Out What’s Broken”, by Adam Gopnik/The New Yorker. September 25, 2023.
Lottery winners who settle in countries other than Israel will receive $24,000 in monthly increments over a period of two years, paid by Israel. They will also receive benefits and services from receiving countries, comparable to what recent immigrants receive in these countries.
The challenge was to come up with something that Israelis might actually go for. Israeli is a democracy, after all. This budget might pass muster. It’s actually rather stingy, but would still require a substantial tax increase to fund. I doubt Israeli voters would agree to spending more.
“Based on our review of 981,671 migrant records documented by USBP [US Border Patrol] from March 2021 through August 2022, addresses for more than 177,000 migrant records were either missing, invalid for delivery, or not legitimate residential locations.” - DHS Does Not Have Assurance That All Migrants Can be Located Once Released into the United States Office of Inspector General/Department of Homeland Security, September 6, 2023
Example of effective political messaging: “We look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms. The first is freedom of speech and expression--everywhere in the world. The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way-- everywhere in the world. The third is freedom from want . . . everywhere in the world. The fourth is freedom from fear . . . anywhere in the world.” - President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Message to Congress, January 6, 1941
In other words, I’ll address how politicians and elected officials might be able to persuade the public and powerful interests to go along with disagreeable policies that promise plenty of short-term pain and almost no immediate payoff, all for an eventual yet somewhat uncertain greater good.
But the US doesn’t just have a skills shortage - it also has a labor shortage, meaning there aren’t enough working-age adults living here to fill available jobs. We need more workers. In other words, we need more immigrants.
Unhelpful responses to this list (shorthand version): it’s not that bad; it’s not his fault; Robots/AI will solve a lot of these problems; just raise taxes on the rich/corporations; Trump/the right-wing/conservatives/Republicans are way worse; so-and-so says it ain’t so; but what about all the things he gets right?!