Atlanta leads nation in gap between rich and poor
There’s been a lot of talk lately about the growing income gap in America between the rich and the poor.
Turns out the the gap is larger in Atlanta than in any other big city in America, Reuters reports.
Also making the list is Athens-Clarke County, home of UGA and the Dawgs, which ranked sixth on the list.
Atlanta’s No. 1, followed by New Orleans and Washington, D.C.
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159 comments Add your comment
Butch Cassidy
October 27th, 2011
11:01 am
ASB – “Now, I have received a layoff notice while he laughs at getting away with harassment”
” i contacted EEOC but the deadline to file had passed.”
That doesn’t make any sense. The EEOC allows an employee up to 18 months to file a claim of retaliation. According to your post, you referred to your layoff notice as “now” which indicates that it is current. If what you say is true, then you should be well within the EEOC deadline for filing.
RAMZAD
October 27th, 2011
11:01 am
Rational:
We are not talking about India. I am also not discounting the effect of Black on Black crime- to make an analogy to the Indian on Indian racism.
However, Indians are a recent phenomena recent in America. Massa was long cracking negro in Augusta heads before the Raj woke up.
nonsense
October 27th, 2011
11:01 am
Ramzad, dude, you are an angry black man that’s just grasping for anything. No, Sharpton and Jackson won’t let black people forget and keep stirring the pot. Maybe, just maybe, black people wouldn’t have such a negative stereotype if one could watch the evening news and not see that the majority of crime is committed by the poor black man.
Whether it be yesterday or 40 years ago, it is the past. Drop it and move on.
Undeserving
October 27th, 2011
11:02 am
Typical AJC “non story” full of racist comments. I like to read the comments so I can see all the “Christians” that I live amongst. Hopefully the rude racist people are just a small sliver of the community, but lately I doubt it.
I am one sale away from loosing my job. So I may soon know how it feels to be unemployed. So according to most of the comments – I will go from being a productive member of society to a worthless piece of garbage with no job. Very “Christian” of you guys. May I be as lucky as you all in life and keep existing in my perfect bubble.
ASB
October 27th, 2011
11:03 am
Thanks Butch Cassidy!
(ir)Rational
October 27th, 2011
11:04 am
RAMZAD – Once again, you’re comments make no sense. Want to try again and have a rational conversation?
Do us all a favor part 2 – I don’t think there are a lot of people anywhere that look down on one particular group and think “well, you’re poor because you’re _____” (fill in whatever group you want there). A lot of people look down on the poor, and don’t care what they look like, but they might think they’ve made better choices, and worked harder than them. I don’t consider it my “luck” that I have what I have, and none of it was given to me either. I’ve made some poor choices in life, and I’m sure I’ll make plenty more, but I’ve also made some good decisions, and have benefited from those just as I’ve had problems because of the poor decisions I’ve made. I take personal responsibility for where I am today, and I’ll take personal responsibility for where I am tomorrow. No matter where that is. Better or worse, it was my decisions/actions that got me here, and it will be my decisions/actions that get me to where ever I end up. Hopefully, I will end up rich, and my children will be better off than I was, but isn’t that what everyone wants for their children?
RAMZAD
October 27th, 2011
11:06 am
Nonsense:
Not angry, just amazed to see that you believe that everything about race relations in America is just fine, and if the poor black people would just forget about slavery and find a new plantation everything would go back to just the way they were.
itamazesme
October 27th, 2011
11:07 am
ASB – We recently had someone come in from the EEOC to speak with us. Something that the rep stressed was that when a person goes to HR and they fail to do something about it, then the company becomes a party to the situation. Try one more time, let them know the reason you took as long as you did about coming to them was because you trusted that the company was handling the process. With your explanation, it seems they would open case for you, unless it has been too much time between the incident and now. Best of luck to you.
Butch Cassidy
October 27th, 2011
11:07 am
ASB – “Thanks Butch Cassidy!”
No problem. I just re-read my post and realized that I had made an error.The EEOC allows 180 DAYs to file. Sorry, but if you just got laid off, I’m sure you can still file.
(ir)Rational
October 27th, 2011
11:07 am
But we were talking about it, or at least nonsense and I were. How they have the attitude that it is a good thing if you go and get an education and make money for yourself and your family. But then you said they didn’t have to deal with the same problems you did, so I was just pointing out that they have issues of their own.
Ed
October 27th, 2011
11:08 am
Let me leave you with one bit of history that is not taught in the government schools. (1) It was a Republican, Abe Lincoln who emancipated the slaves 148 years ago. Thousands of blacks have used the 148 years since then to take advantage of their individual worth and become good citizens who contribute to the betterment of mankind. (2) It was the Dixiecrats, splinters of the DEMOCRAT PARTY who championed the separate but equal practices of old. It was the Democrats who fought bitterly against equal rights and integration. It was the Democrats who created the federal plantation to which a majority of blacks are now enslaved. Blacks were conditioned to drink the poison from the welfare cup. To abandon their individualism to the welfare state created by the Democrats. After all these years a majority of blacks still march in lock step with their Democrat masters . Figger that out and you’ll begin to understand why the world is passing you by.
(ir)Rational
October 27th, 2011
11:10 am
Ed – Don’t go quoting actual facts/history here. It doesn’t fit the narrative.
RAMZAD
October 27th, 2011
11:11 am
Ed:
Golly!
We have something. May be Democrats are racists too. Astounding! We know the Republican Tea Party is not.
(ir)Rational
October 27th, 2011
11:14 am
RAMZAD – The Tea Party actually isn’t. But, once again, don’t let the facts get in the way of a good emotional argument. The news has a habit of going out and finding the craziest person they can at any type of rally, cause that makes the best news story, and then portraying an entire movement based off the opinions of that one person. However, if you truly believe the Tea Part is racist, let’s see some actual proof.
RAMZAD
October 27th, 2011
11:15 am
Rational:
You are deluded in your own little perfect world. Just wait the the poor and the black and the Latinos – some all three in one- start coming over your compound fence by the dozens and your world start coming apart. We will see how much things are just fine.
(ir)Rational
October 27th, 2011
11:17 am
So no rational discussion? Okay, so I guess I’ll go ahead and leave since you don’t want to have a real discussion.
(ir)Rational
October 27th, 2011
11:18 am
Oh, FYI, I don’t live in a compound, and anyone that tries to come into my house will be met with 00 Buckshot from my 12 gauge. Just sayin.
nonsense
October 27th, 2011
11:18 am
Ramzad, there are 2 kinds of people in this world:
1) those that go out and better themselves no matter what their past situation may be; and
2) those that cry about how their lives suck and blame everyone except themselves.
I’ll go out on a limb and say you, my friend, are in the second boat.
Do us all a favor part 2
October 27th, 2011
11:21 am
@ M’Karyl – yes indeed!!!! You are speaking the truth!
Occutard
October 27th, 2011
11:23 am
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this article and the following comments from my 12.5k sq ft home on W. Paces Ferry Road. It is such a blessing and a privilege to be able to sit in my designer decorated home, staring out the window at my exotic foreign mode of transportation and being fortunate enough to be living off my multitude of wealth courtesy of the 99%. Please accept my gratitude and thanks go to those at the IRS for only taxing my capital gains at a mere 15%. Have a blessed day my minions.
Do us all a favor part 2
October 27th, 2011
11:24 am
Thanks Ed! Main reason why I don’t participate in the politics! Why advocate for a system dead bent on keeping me enslaved…whether it be pyhsical or mental…the mental slavery is at an all time high these days!
Do us all a favor part 2
October 27th, 2011
11:25 am
@ Occtutard…..you can jump at any moment now
Occutard
October 27th, 2011
11:32 am
Actually Duaafp2, you should be doing the jumping and asking me “How high?”
Do us all a favor part 2
October 27th, 2011
11:35 am
You make good points Irrational BUT do a hypothectical that is really someone’s reality with me for one second….Little girl Ashley was born and raised in the foster care system….she ceases upon the limited opportunities available to her. She transitioned from foster family to foster family until reaching her 17th b-day and is no longer a ward of the state. Little Ashley decided to go to college, she decided to get a job. She loses her job and ultimately her home. Within 6months she is living below poverty with the aid from the goverment. You tell me if you think Little Ashley’s situation could’ve been prevented by Little Ashley or if there were factors in her past beyond her control. She became a productive member of society, she used her skills and talents to gain meaningful employment. But I wonder if Little Ashley had a well-to-do family (not rich but just average) if her outcome would be the same. The only reason why I never had to stand in a line or enter a shelter is because I have family. That is the only reason. Some people no matter how hard they work don’t have that so when they fall…they fall alone! And are bundled together with a group of people that society looks down upon because income or the lack of it.
Student of Life
October 27th, 2011
11:36 am
“I’ll go out on a limb and say you, my friend, are in the second boat.”
In what boat is someone who comments on AJC blogs all day instead of working?
Do us all a favor part 2
October 27th, 2011
11:36 am
@ Occutard…..I’m too busy asking the enemy how high…sorry, wait in line.
bemebpme
October 27th, 2011
11:37 am
Sweet I’m rich. and broke a the same time.
nonsense
October 27th, 2011
11:40 am
Student of Life, that person is in the same boat as the one who comes into the blog to ask that question.
Student of Life
October 27th, 2011
11:49 am
@nonsense
I’ve been on here 15 minutes; you’ve been on here two hours. Very different boats.
nonsense
October 27th, 2011
11:51 am
Sorry, I didn’t realize the blog police was out and keeping tabs on people.
ASB
October 27th, 2011
11:52 am
itamazesme, thank you!
lapedro
October 27th, 2011
11:56 am
hey lets do away with lending standards so everyone can own the american dream and of course they can just take out a lyar loan and we will give them a mortgage, yea thats the ticket, oh sorry thats already been tried by the democrat socialist party, oh well, lets do away with paying back student loans oh thats right the democrat socialist have already done that too, well lets plant more of those trees that money grows on and everyone can be rich
yuzeyurbrane
October 27th, 2011
11:57 am
Probably a big surprise to those who live in gated communities and scoot to work in HOT Lanes.
lapedro
October 27th, 2011
11:58 am
yea lets just plant trees that money grows on and then when we have a forest we will all be happy and live together in harmony
lapedro
October 27th, 2011
12:00 pm
dousallafavorpart2, your kid needs his diaper changed, you’ve been on here preaching for 2 hours
lapedro
October 27th, 2011
12:02 pm
right on ED right on
lapedro
October 27th, 2011
12:04 pm
illegals are steamrolling over the “been done wrongs” but but but squaaaash
Chip
October 27th, 2011
12:07 pm
Sorry, the poor that I know work 2-3 jobs, 7 days a week and are the hardest working people around.
To correct an early ignorant comment what can be purchased with food stamps is very limited and regulated! You think poor people don’t want a job? put out a help wanted sign and see how many people come or just watch the news when theirs a job fair and the people are lined up around the block for hours.
For those making disparaging comments I know many $100K + salaried professional men 45+ who after 1-2 years of being out of work are poor and taking physical labor jobs for $17-23K, they will tell you how hard they work!
Remember we all are just two words from joining the poor! “YOUR FIRED!”
Do us all a favor part 2
October 27th, 2011
12:28 pm
@ Chip….my thoughts exactly!!!!
GHOTART
October 27th, 2011
12:31 pm
Let just be honest…Everyone can’t be rich. Someone, some group or class, must flip burgers…pick tomatoes..clean public restrooms and do all of the other things that make being rich worth-while, if not, there is no advantage in wealth. The poor are just as much a component of wealth as is any tangible asset. The poor (as a group) have an intrinsic value that has a direct effect upon the value that is attributed to the wealth of the rich. So please…. stop bashing the poor. Because…( God Bless’em ) without them there is no us ! ! !
Do us all a favor part 2
October 27th, 2011
12:32 pm
@ lapedro…interesting….there sure is enough of it to make everyone rich. I wonder why that idea never got passed…I know why, the top 1% would have a fit. Money is backed by nothing yet people have to kill each other just to get their hands on it. Crazy world we live in….
Oh BTW – my child is in school and how long I choose to vent has absolutely nothing to do with your and your coins….
A.S.Mathew
October 27th, 2011
12:51 pm
Economic catastrophe of the U.S. has turned like a disabled ship
1000 miles away from the land. Now the economic situation drastically
turned as a class war in between the rich and the poor. The poor and the middle class are in the same boat and the rich are standing on the
other side. This seems like a long term problem because the economy
is not showing any positive sign.
ashamed
October 27th, 2011
12:57 pm
ramzad-
Please… get a job. I am ashamed of you. Redirect your anger at the true source of your problems, the only element that is consistent in any situation in which you have been wronged…YOU. Be a strong human and work to achieve a positive result, quit bringing our country down with yor racism!
ashamed
October 27th, 2011
1:03 pm
type-o “your” rather than “yor”
Benjamin Check
October 27th, 2011
1:26 pm
I love all these people who keep saying that they see people in new escalades buying nail polish and hair products with food stamps. First of all, you cannot buy those items with an EBT card, so STFU please. Secondly, if you are busy paying attention to what form of payment someone else is using and analyzing their purchases, you really need to find something to do with your life. THIRD, if you are in an area where the majority of people are paying with foodstamps/EBT then I’m sorry to reveal this to you, but YOU’RE AS BROKE AS THEY ARE; and have no business trying to look down your nose at someone who is your neighbor. and FOURTH…all you do is show that you yourself have never bought anything requiring what is called a CREDIT CHECK; from a cellphone, to a vehicle. Swiping an EBT card at the car dealership and waving your section 8 voucher will get you nothing but laughed at and a firm escort out of the building. And then to this idiot Quantavius… My sister in law is a tutor, she tutors rich kids who get scholarships. Poor kids have the HARDEST time going to school for free; usually come from a “difficult” background where the parents are less educated, and therefore less knowledgeable about scholarships, tuition costs, grants etc. When they cut the hope loans and raised the GPA the people who benefit are the upper middle class, and upper class parents who have money to spend on tutors for the SAT, ACT, and AP exams. Their kids go to school on scholarship, well deserved, but their family can certainly afford tuition.
Another question is this….how did the illegals get here in the first place? When I was in high school (94-98), Industrious high school kids (like myself) mowed lawns in our suburb communities and made a pretty penny. We worked as dishwashers, made pizzas, worked in foot locker, subway, fast food. Fast Forward to 2008. White suburbanites now pay illegals to mow their lawns, nanny their kids, staff their kitchens, as cheap under the table labor when they are doing their section 8 slumlord thing and taking advantage of targeted real estate fraud designed to keep an area depressed until the gentrification arrives and those “in the know” can flip and make money. Who paid all these illegals? White people! I’m a real estate investor myself; I’ve never gone to home depot and gathered up a crew of illegals, but I have sure seen a MILLION white guys pick up a truckload. Anti-obama sticker in the window, but paying illegals as fast as you can, instead of another American. Then they cry “taxes”……STFU.
keith
October 27th, 2011
1:26 pm
I work 6 days a week to get by because I like spending money.
Benjamin Check
October 27th, 2011
1:44 pm
This goes out to Ed and all the people who say Abraham lincoln and MLK were republicans, like blacks should owe republicans. I will type this in caps so you idiots understand this.
AFTER AND DURING THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT, RACIST REPUBLICANS WHO WERE AGAINST IT JOINED FORCES WITH THE RACIST DIXIECRATS AND FORMED “THE NEW REPUBLICAN PARTY”; SOLIDIFIED IN 1970 WHEN NIXON USED THE “SOUTHERN STRATEGY” TO UNITE RACIST ELEMENTS IN NORTH AND SOUTH. THAT IS WHEN BLACK PEOPLE AND MINORITIES BEGAN TO MAKE THEIR TRANSITION TO THE DEMOCRATS. Keep bringing up abraham lincoln to black people like we owe abe something. Lincoln cared not ONE IOTA about slavery; slaves were freed to disrupt the southern war effort and the cotton and tobacco trade with England which financed it. Slaves were freed to scare racist coward rebel soldiers into thinking that now that massa isn’t home, the slaves will run wild raping white women and killing old white folks who couldn’t go fight. It had NOTHING to do with SLAVERY itself. ZIP, ZERO. Freedom was a byproduct of the civil war, not the reason as so many whites like to pretend. Isn’t this supposed to be YOUR country? Why don’t you know your own history? Or do you just tell yourselves these lies to make yourselves feel superior; like the word “cracker” has anything to do with a whip or the sound it makes. It means LIAR. Cracker means LIAR.
As early as the 1760s, this term was in use by the upper class planters in the British North American colonies to refer to Scots-Irish and English settlers in the south. The vast majority of whom were descendants of English bond servants. A letter to the Earl of Dartmouth reads:
“I should explain to your Lordship what is meant by Crackers; a name they have got from being great boasters; they are a lawless set of rascalls on the frontiers of Virginia, Maryland, the Carolinas, and Georgia, who often change their places of abode.” That was written in 1760.
Stop trying to rewrite history, your revisionist attempts are futile and only effective on the already stupid and mis-educated.
just saying
October 27th, 2011
2:43 pm
I’m telling you. Atlanta cannot let go of the race issue .
Eric Aslakson
October 27th, 2011
2:50 pm
The solution is not complicated at all.
Stop rich multinationals from shipping all our good jobs overseas and you’ll start to reduce income disparity.
Start making the rich pay their fair share of taxes and you’ll start to reduce income disparity.
To do both of these will require kicking GA’s current senators out of office – at a minimum – they are against both of the above.
Jomozall
October 27th, 2011
4:03 pm
Mo Bieber. Must have mo Bieber.