I did several stories related to hate crimes. I will get back to analysis of a variety of crimes. However, I am taking a break and moving to investigate income inequality. This will be a process. I started with median housing costs over time relative to median family income and also the CPI-U (consumer price index) adjusted changes in income over time.

Coming Attractions

Future Income Inequality Topics

I intend to look at median individual income over time relative to median rental cost.

I will look to incorporate median automobile payments, health insurance child-care and student loans, each as a percentage of the median income. My goal is to get a picture of the financial reality folks are facing today. My theory is that the increases in health care and college, along with the cost of saving for a down payment today are some biggest challenges for young adults. I don’t think the consumer price index is truly capturing the reality. If you look at the Income gains over time based on CPI-U adjusted data indicates that while everyone is not sharing in the gains equally, all quartiles have benefited from technological efficiencies. I would like to get a better picture using unadjusted data and looking at the percentage of income being allocated to each of the above areas. Is the median individual really doing better?

Also, I will be looking what is included in the CPI-U index and how everything is weighted. I took a quick look, and it seems to me that housing and rent isn’t weighted equal to their portion of the family’s or individual’s budget. I will be digging down to confirm this and whether there are any biases.

The final portion of the income inequality section will look at employment, underemployment, unemployment and disability.