News and perspective on public policy issues affecting Washington's economy and quality of life, brought to you by the Economic Opportunity Institute.
Every year, retirement seems out of reach for more Americans. According to a 2011 Gallup poll, 66% of Americans say their biggest financial concern is being unable to save enough money to retire – up from 53% in 2011. For the first time since the Great Depression, elderly poverty rates will likely increase and even [...]
From the Everett Herald | By John Burbank: We’ve had a lot of talk about the privilege of the top 1 percent, and how they are grabbing more and more of our national income. Once, productivity increases were proportionally shared between corporations and workers. Now they’re mostly grabbed by companies and their top executives, while [...]
Imagine giving an extra 5% of the nation’s total annual income to the residents of Wasilla, Alaska starting in 1980, and you’ve got a good grasp of income inequality in the U.S. today. Thanks to lower tax rates for the rich and growing income inequality, $650 billion in wages that would have gone to middle-class [...]
By David Cay Johnston, excerpted from Reuters: Everyone seems to know that about half of Americans paid no income taxes in 2009 and that the top 1 percent paid about 37 percent of the income taxes. But how many people know that households making less than $75,000 collectively paid more federal income tax than those [...]
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