My understanding is that inequality is much worse now than in the 60s. It also s...

refurb · on July 24, 2020

Census data on percentage of blacks living in poverty.[1]

2018 - 23.3%

1966 - 31.1%

[1]https://www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/demo/income-p...

zone411 · on July 25, 2020

Not saying that you're making it at all but there is a very common error people make when looking at the poverty stats.

"The official poverty definition uses money income before taxes and does not include capital gains or noncash benefits (such as public housing, Medicaid, and food stamps)." (https://www.census.gov/topics/income-poverty/poverty/guidanc...)

After these programs, the poverty rate is reduced by 53% (https://www.nber.org/papers/w24567.pdf)

refurb · on July 25, 2020

This is a good point and something I had heard before! You are correct this is before gov't transfers.

I was looking more at the relative change versus arguing the numbers were absolute.

harimau777 · on July 25, 2020

Thanks for posting this! Good to have numbers to discuss!

I'm having trouble opening the spreadsheets on my Mac. How do the numbers compare for all races? Do numbers like this factor in things like health insurance or renting versus owning a house?