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   From: limp-dick.democrats@kamalaharris.com   
      
   Can't blame Trump for this.   
      
   WASHINGTON — Economists who study the gap between the rich and poor in   
   Minnesota say it can be viewed either as a glass half empty, or as a glass   
   half full.   
      
   Minnesota’s income inequality has slowly grown over the past 20 years or so,   
   mostly because its Black and indigenous population has continued to lag behind   
   other racial and ethnic groups in the state when it comes to household income.   
      
   However, the state is still among those whose income gap is among the   
   narrowest.   
      
   “Compared to other states in the country, Minnesota looks good,” said   
   Monica Hayes, director of the Bureau of Business and Economic Research at the   
   University of Minnesota-Duluth.   
      
   Hayes said the state is “in the bottom ten” according to the Gini   
   coefficient, a statistical model that measures income distribution. The Gini   
   coefficient ranges from zer0  — indicating perfect equality with everyone   
   receiving an equal share — to    
   1, which indicates perfect inequality with only one recipient or a group of   
   recipients receiving all of the income.   
      
   According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Minnesota’s Gini coefficient was .46 in   
   2022.  That was lower than every state except for nine of them, including   
   Iowa, Wisconsin and South Dakota. Utah had the lowest Gini coefficient, a   
   little less than .43, and    
   New York had the highest at a little more than .51.   
      
   But Minnesota’s coefficient has grown over time. In 2006 it was .43; in 2010   
   it was .44 and in 2016 it was .45.   
      
   Angela Fertig, a social policy research scientist at the University of   
   Minnesota, said the gap between the haves and have nots has increased in the   
   state because Black and indigenous Minnesotans still face barriers to upward   
   mobility.   
      
   “Minnesota looks great on a lot of measures, but it is one of the worst   
   places for non-white groups,” she said.   
      
   Fertig said a legacy of “redlining,” a discriminatory practice in which   
   mortgages and other financial services are withheld from minority   
   neighborhoods, has hurt people of color.   
      
   There’s also a huge home ownership gap between whites and non-whites,   
   especially Black Minnesotans, that is an obstacle to building wealth, Fertig   
   said. A recent study showed 77.5% of white households own their homes in   
   Minnesota compared to just 30.5%    
   of Black households.   
      
   Because of the lack of opportunity to live in better housing, Fertig said   
   there’s a “spatial mismatch” between where low-income people reside and   
   where the good paying jobs are located in Minnesota.   
      
   Fertig also said Minnesota’s increasing wealth gap is bad for the economy   
   because the wealthy don’t spend their money like those with fewer means.   
   “When you put money in the pockets of people who don’t have much, they   
   spend it locally,” she    
   said.   
      
   And while Minnesota has a progressive income tax, most of the taxes paid at   
   the local level — sales taxes and property taxes — are not progressive,   
   Fertig said.   
      
   “That causes the system to be very regressive,” she said.   
      
   Still, Minnesota continues to have a very low poverty rate — 9.6%, several   
   percentage points less than the national rate. However, in 2021 it was   
   estimated that more than 20% of the state’s Black residents reported incomes   
   below the poverty level,    
   compared with just 7.5% of the white population.   
      
   What’s behind the gap?   
   The Gini measure of the gap between rich and poor does not take into   
   consideration government social service programs, like rent subsidies, food   
   stamps and other programs that aim to lift the poorest American families.   
      
   Those efforts at leveling the playing field may help lessen actual income   
   inequality among the lowest 20% of wage earners — especially in Minnesota   
   where there is a growing safety net.   
      
   But the state is also subject to strong, overriding national trends that have   
   dramatically widened the income gap in the United States, which has the   
   highest Gini index —  about .49 in 2022 — of all Western industrialized   
   nations.   
      
   There are several reasons why the rich get richer and the wages of the poor   
   and middle class stagnate.   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
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