Florida has the
highest rates of wealth disparity among the swing states that will decide
November's U.S. presidential election, with a level of 0.471 on the Gini index
against a national average of 0.467.
The index is
used by the U.S. Census Bureau to measure income, with a level of 0 indicating
maximum equality and 1 indicating maximum inequality. The state is followed by
North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Virginia, with Ohio further behind with a Gini
index of 0.450.
In Palm Beach
county, the level of disparity is even more apparent, with a Gini index of
0.505. The town of Palm Beach - with its fancy boutiques, high-end restaurants
and clubs and ocean-front mansions concealed by huge hedges - has a median
household income of $110,000.
But just a
half-hour drive west through some of the U.S.'s largest sugar farms are some of
the country's most destitute communities. Belle Glade, for instance, has a
median household income of just $28,000. Amid rampant rural poverty and crime,
the biggest hope for many of the residents of "muck city" - a reference to
sugarcane soil - is found in religious faith or finding a way in to a
professional American football team.
If President
Obama's push for higher taxes on the wealthy is to resonate anywhere in America
it will probably be amid such contrasts - and Democrats on the ground believe
they are succeeding. moneycontrol.com
The contrasting
economic fortunes in Palm Beach county - and across south Florida - make it the
epicenter of the political battle over income distribution in America. It is
also a testing ground for Obama's message of economic fairness through higher
taxation on the rich, which is at the heart of his re-election campaign.
FT While economic
pain has become common and more visible across the U.S. amid a sluggish
recovery, Boca, Florida is still an unexpected location for scenes of poverty.
FT The recession
ended nearly three years ago but the number of hungry people flooding through
the doors of food banks continues to swell, says Jim Gavrilos, the executive
director of Boca Helping Hands, a food bank in Boca, Florida.
FT Meanwhile, Boca
Raton is also a warm weather residence for wealthy sport stars, musicians and
corporate executives, from Donald Trump to Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg. Roughly
20 miles up the coast is Palm Beach Island, the site of John F. Kennedy's winter
White House and a sunny second home for at least 24 of America's 400 top
billionaires, from David Koch to Steve Schwarzman and Henry Kravis.
FT CEO pay in the
U.S. in 2010 was 325 times what workers averaged, according to the annual survey
“Executive Excess,” published by the Institute for Policy Studies, a Washington-
based research group critical of high executive pay.
Bloomberg
AHT/HJ
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