Portside

African-Americans are disproportionately likely to be poor, they are only a quarter of Americans living in poverty; whites make up about 41% of the poor. Those white Americans who don't want to help the poor because they'd be helping people of another race are actually screwing over white people big time.The wealth gap between /white and African-American families tripled between 1980 and 2009.

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There is no silver bullet in this fight for economic justice. Not one public official, nor one economist, nor one President will solve our mess. A return to democratic principles and a deepening of participatory process is what it will take to uplift the working class.

Bill Gates' critique of Thomas Piketty is revealing for what it overlooks

It used to be that economic expansions improved the incomes of the bottom 90 percent more than the top 10 percent. But starting with the “Reagan” recovery of 1982 to 1990, the benefits of economic growth during expansions have gone mostly to the top 10 percent. Since the current recovery began in 2009, all economic gains have gone to the top 10 percent.

Colleges and universities, which receive enormous tax benefits to serve the public interest, should be held to a minimum level of effort to enroll and graduate low-income and working-class students eligible for Pell grants. Governments could also provide financial rewards targeted to universities that commit to increasing socioeconomic diversity and that shift their funds from non-need merit grants to students in actual need.

America’s top central bankers didn’t make time for inequality at their annual hobnob last week. Over in Germany, Nobel Prize winners in economics did. But few Americans noticed.

How Economic Inequality Harms Societies. Peter Case -- House Rent Party. The Racial Wealth Gap in America. Guantanamera Around the World. The Racism of the US Criminal Justice System in 10 Charts.