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Economic Inequality

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Economic Inequality

Publications

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    The Middle Class Shrinks and Income Segregation Rises

    A new Pew Research Center report shows that the share of upper-income households living in neighborhoods that are mainly upper income has risen from 1980 to 2010, as has the share of lower-income households living in neighborhoods where most other households are lower income. Income segregation also has grown in most of the nation’s largest metropolitan areas.

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    The Rise of Residential Segregation by Income

    Residential segregation by income has increased during the past three decades across the United States and in 27 of the nation’s 30 largest major metropolitan areas[1. For this report, the 30 largest metropolitan areas were measured based on the metro areas with the largest number of households, not based on total population.] , according to […]

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    Raising Taxes on Rich Seen as Good for Economy, Fairness

    Overview By two-to-one (44% to 22%), the public says that raising taxes on incomes above $250,00o would help the economy rather than hurt it, while 24% say this would not make a difference. Moreover, an identical percentage (44%) says a tax increase on higher incomes would make the tax system more fair, while just 21% […]

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    For the Public, It’s Not about Class Warfare, But Fairness

    Income inequality has become a major issue in the presidential campaign. A recent Pew Research Center poll, for example, attracted wide attention when it found that as many as 66% of Americans believe there are “very strong” or “strong” conflicts between the rich and the poor, an increase of 19 percentage points since 2009. But […]

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    Lower-Income Republicans Say Government Does Too Little for Poor People

    Mitt Romney’s statement that he is focused solely on the problems of middle class Americans, not the poor, may not sit well with lower-income voters within his own party. Roughly a quarter of Republican and Republican-leaning registered voters have annual family incomes under $30,000, and most of them say that the government does not do […]

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    It’s About Fairness, Not Class Warfare

    Pew Research Center President Andrew Kohut writes in the New York Times while Americans are hearing more and more about class conflict, there is little indication that they are increasingly divided along these lines. Their concerns are about policies that give everyone a fair shot.