Thursday, November 17, 2016

BROWNTOWN: WE'RE NOTHING IF NOT CONSISTENT(LY) POOR

By Stephen Peters
24/7 Wall Street
U.S. median household income rose by $2,800 to $56,516 in 2015. This 5.2 percent gain is the largest increase since 1998. However, incomes have not fully recovered from the recession and are still lower from their 2007 levels when adjusted for inflation.

Many of America’s healthiest job markets, which have some of the most lucrative jobs in industries such as technology and finance, are clustered in the Northeast and West.

By contrast, cities in other regions, particularly in Southern states, tend to have lower incomes. 24/7 Wall St. identified the poorest cities in America by reviewing median household income data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The typical household in all of the 25 poorest cities earns at least $15,000 less annually than the typical American household. The poorest metro is the Brownsville-Harlingen, Texas, area, where the median household income is only $34,074 a year.

Click here to see America’s poorest cities.

In addition to having fewer jobs in some of the most competitive industries, the poorest cities tend to have a higher share of residents who are unemployed, which further drives down median incomes. The jobless rate is higher than the national rate of 4.9% in 20 of the 25 poorest cities.
Completing a college degree is one of the best ways to access higher-paying job opportunities.

Partially as a result, populations with higher educational attainment rates tend to have higher incomes. The percentage of adults with at least a bachelor’s degree is higher than the national attainment rate of 30.6% in only one of the 25 poorest cities.

Cities with low incomes also tend to have higher rates of poverty. The U.S. Census Bureau bases the poverty threshold on family size and composition. For example, the poverty threshold for a single individual under 65 years of age is an income of less than $12,082 a year. Nationwide, 14.7% of Americans live below the poverty line. All of the 25 poorest cities have a higher poverty rate. The poorest metro in America, Brownsville-Harlingen, also has the highest poverty rate of any U.S. metro area, with nearly one in three residents living below the poverty line.

To read entire article, click on link below:

http://247wallst.com/special-report/2016/10/07/americas-poorest-cities-3/

8 comments:

tom landrie said...

Some will blame the gringos but I blame our lack of long-term leadership. At least McAllen is progressing and we live within the same characteristics.

Anonymous said...

Since most of our college students plan on staying in the local area, there is no incentive for local businesses to pay rates comparable to other regions....staying local is the graduates primary interest. We have a culture of poverty and it is continually infused by illegal immigrants who fare better in poverty here than in poverty from their native countries. The culture of poverty doesn't seem to have a respect for education, so the "interest" or "pressure" to achieve academically is different in poor areas than in "other" areas. And, local governments and local politicians pander to the poor....promising great benefits that never come, and playing on the ignorance of their constituents, but eager to use their tax dollars. The Democratic Party depends on poverty and ignorance and in 30 years has produced little to effect change locally...depending on federal and state funds. Check...most of the poor areas are dominated by Democrats and have been for decades.

Anonymous said...

Intelligent blogger ahead of this one? Good for you. Someone actually makes sense. Now, if only the blue jean mayor would read and/or listen to this publicity for his beloved city.

The Pissed Off Conservative said...

Not only Brownsville is one of the poorest cities in the country but they are one of the least educated with the lowest percentage of people with a degree, heck I wouldn't ne amazed if Brownsville had the lowest percentage of high school graduates.

Like a previous poster said the people who should be held accountable are our leaders but us residents carry some of that blame too because we elect those leaders.

But there is a bit of an issue with his statement too.

I guess he doesn't know that the average democrat has a college degree with the vast majority of them holding a bachelor's degree or higher while the average Republican voter doesn't have a college degree and a good portion of them don't even finish school. Not making this up you can search it yourself if you must. Republicans do depend on the ignorance of their constituents in order to keep them in line. Remember they need a bogeyman to remain relevant.

But what about the Valley you may ask?

The valley has a different vibe and demographics here are different with the vast majority being Democrats but that is expected since hispanics tend to vote democrat with a few exceptions like the Cuban garbage that comes here illegally and yet somehow they still get political asylum even though US/Cuba relations are much better. Let's hope Trump fixes this.

Anonymous said...

http://valleycentral.com/news/local/laredo-mayor-city-manager-congratulate-trump-ask-for-meeting

What has our dumbokrat mayor done?

Anonymous said...

Government opression.
They keep giving the poor free food free housing free education free medical. Therefore the poor are happy, stress-free and they live a long healthy life. Unfortunately they I still the same lifestyle on their brethren. Brownsville refuses to prosper and will not. The kids that get a college education stay in the area because with a 34000 salary they hire an illegal maid, Gardner, nanny and live like kings on their $3000 a month salary. That's why they don't leave. The ones that leave come back, to become politicians and keep us down.

Anonymous said...

Many of the people in Brownsville are recent arrivals from Mexico and other poor regions. Once they arrive and start receiving the benefits they get here, they become complacent and are happy to have improved their lives. But, they lack the incentive to become better educated, are unwilling to learn English because they don't need to, don't apply for citizenship because they don't see the need or fear identifying themselves to any authority, and the local communities don't seem to encourage citizenship. We are poor, in part, because of all of this.

Anonymous said...

The grade of C is considered "average" or 70%. Democrats have a 49% to 42% advantage of those that consider themselves DEMOCRAT over those that consider themselves REPUBLICAN. The fact that 7% more Democrats have college degrees than Republican nation wide does not seem to be the case in poverty stricken area like the RGV. That is assuming that higher education means less poverty, I made tube same assumption you mace.....
With that said: look what happened just a ccouple of weeks ago, a man who was not even supported by the elite of his own party won the election for the President of the United States of America.

Trump has turned everything upside down, no one on either side of the aisle is assuming anything anymore.

rita