“Wealth and Poverty” Class 4: Why your income increasingly depends on where you live

Good morning, friends,

This week’s Class 4 explores why geographic segregation by income, wealth, and race has been on the rise.

In case you missed them, here are the classes that have been released so far: Class 1, Class 2, Class 3.

For Class 4, just double-click on the video below, and you’re in the fourth week of class.

Some background:

Inequalities that depend on where you live are widening in particularly divisive ways.

To be rich in today’s America means never having to come into contact with anyone who isn’t. To be poor in today’s America means being trapped on islands of poverty from which escape has become more and more difficult.

The questions we’ll focus on today:

• Why is it becoming easier for the wealthier to segregate from the poorer within a nation?

• What forms does this segregation take in addition to geographic?

• What are the consequences?

• Is this much different from a nation as a whole cutting itself off from others around the world who are poorer?

Thanks for joining me!

Recommended Readings:

• Editorial Board, “The Cities We Need,” The New York Times

• Phillip Longman, “Why the Economic Fates of American Cities Diverged,” The Atlantic

• Jonathan Kozol, “Life on the Mississippi: East St. Louis, Illinois,” Savage Inequalities

• Jacqueline Rabe Thomas, “Separated by Design: How Some of America’s Richest Towns Fight Affordable Housing,” ProPublica

For a full list of readings and the student handout for today’s class, you can visit the course website here.

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A huge thanks to the Wealth and Poverty team — to Michael Lahanas-Calderón, Kyle Parker, Dan Davis, and Emmett Tjen — as well as Coro Fellows Ammar Ansari and Meagan Turner for preparing these course materials to be shared with all of you. And to Heather Kinlaw Lofthouse for making all this happen on this page.