zaterdag 30 mei 2009

The Empire 455

'Niet de islam maar de westerse cultuur [is] superieur,' schrijft een zekere Amanda Kluveld in de Volkskrant.

How the Poorest Americans Dropped Out of Politics

by: Lee Drutman | Visit article original @ Miller-McCune Magazine

In the 2008 election, lower-income Americans voted at significantly lower rates than higher-income Americans. This was not, in itself, news. Just as in 2004, more than 60 percent of voters came from families above the median household income of $50,000. That family income is a significant predictor of individual voting is a long-standing and oft-lamented fact of American political life.

But over the last several decades, inequality in the United States has worsened. Between 1973 and 2000, the richest one-fifth of Americans saw their family income grow by 66.9 percent, while the poorest one-fifth saw their income increase by only 12.1 percent. At the same time, poverty has become more geographically concentrated. In 1970, the average poor family inhabited a census tract where only 13.6 percent of the other families were poor; by 1990, it was double that - 27.9 percent.

Joe Soss and Lawrence Jacobs, professors of political science at the University of Minnesota, were curious to understand how these two trends, which have typically been studied in isolation, related to each other. What they found was that over time, while the probability of voting has declined for all Americans, the declines have been the steeper among people living in low-income counties, and steepest for low-income people living in low-income counties. As Americans have become more segregated by class, the trend seems to have exacerbated the participatory balance in politics.

1 opmerking:

Anoniem zei

Hoe komt ze er trouwens ook bij om een 1400 jaar oude religie te vergelijken met het geheel van de hedendaagse cultuur? Waarvan de Islam trouwens deel van uitmaakt en waar het aan heeft bijgedragen.

Bedroevend weer, de onnozelheid die ze aan het woord laten in onze kwaliteitskranten.

Abdul Haq

Peter Flik en Chuck Berry-Promised Land

mijn unieke collega Peter Flik, die de vrijzinnig protestantse radio omroep de VPRO maakte is niet meer. ik koester duizenden herinneringen ...