Massachusetts is leading the way into a new Guilded Age. The Bay State has one of the largest income gaps between the rich and the poor in the country. The first installment of a two-part report in the Worcester Business Journal details how this yawning divide has affected business in Central Massachusetts.
A Boylston Jaguar dealer notes that the very wealthy haven’t given up on the finer things in life like sleek cars, they’ve just learned to buy them “quietly.” But the people who splurged or relied on credit to finance their spending have pulled back on luxury purchases.
The Great Recession, however, has forced the rich be more cautious and to get in touch with their roots. As a Shrewsbury “personal style advisor” explains it, New Englanders take a “very pragmatic approach to spending money,” which is why high-end retailers haven’t beaten a path to metro Worcester and the upscale mall, the Natick Collection, hasn’t flourished. The economic insecurity combined with increased longevity also means that local money managers are seeing an uptick in planning for extreme old age. What’s the cost of “guaranteed comfort for life,” you might ask? A cool $2.5 million, according to one Worcester personal finance expert.
Not surprisingly, little has changed at the other end of the income spectrum. One in three working families are barely making ends meet. According to a report by the Working Families Project, summarized in The Washington Post, the number of low-income working families rose to 45 million, an increase of 1.7 million between 2008 and 2009
Meanwhile, the richest 20 percent of working families take in 47 percent of all income and earn 10 times as much as working poor families. Women are also facing greater pressures: the proportion of working women with unemployed husbands has more than doubled, from 2.4 percent to 5.4 percent.
The Economist finds that among the unemployed, 42 percent have been jobless for more than 26 weeks, leading the magazine to conclude that prospects for the long-term unemployed are bleak, since their problems won’t end when boom times return. “Workers may be discouraged or their skills may decay. Employers may be wary of someone who has been out of the [labor] force for more than a year. The most desperate may try to qualify for disability payments… When the economy recovers at last, many will be left behind.”
–GABRIELLE GURLEY
MASS. POLITICS AND THE CENSUS
The Globe and the Herald are both all over the story of the state’s impending loss of a US House seat. And both go with the predictable pop culture reference, calling it a game of “Survivor” now among the 10 members of the delegation who will have to vie for 9 seats. But give the Herald props for having the decency to give the analogy the full treatment, providing our esteemed lawmakers with photoshopped “Survivor” bandanas to make them look as ridiculous as possible.
Wild speculation abounds as to which Massachusetts congressman will get thrown overboard. John Tierney looks weak. John Olver is a tempting target because he doesn’t live near Boston. Barney Frank could just pack it in and retire. But Steve Lynch tells the Boston Herald he won’t make things easy on legislative district-makers: He’s running for reelection in 2012, instead of giving up his South Boston seat to challenge Scott Brown.
Both Tierney and Niki Tsongas are already making the case that their districts should not be touched, the Eagle-Tribune reports. The Lynn Item reports that Tierney’s hold on his Sixth District seat is seen as weak. Radio Boston has state Sen. Stanley Rosenberg and the Globe’s Matt Viser on to talk about the redistricting challenge. Peter Gelzinis has a message to the cranks cheering the state’s loss of a seat in Congress: Go to Florida, get eaten alive by some monstrous insects, good luck dodging all the hurricanes, and don’t let the door hit you on the way out.
Political sage and New England Council CEO Jim Brett joins Harvard prof Stephen Ansolabehere and Boston Globe political editor Scott Helman to discuss what the census numbers mean at the macro and local level on “Greater Boston.”
Massachusetts isn’t the only state with redistricting woes: Hispanic voter advocates in Texas are already threatening to go to the Supreme Court if the GOP-led state legislature doesn’t draw the majority-minority districts they say they deserve.
Slate warns Republicans against celebrating their gains too soon.
So who picked up seats? Who lost them? Answers await in this super-fun New York Times interactive map.
BEACON HILL
After naming the state’s first black chief justice of the Supreme Judicial Court, Gov. Deval Patrick made history again by nominating Asian-American Fernande Duffly, an appeals court judge, to become an associate justice of the SJC.
WASHINGTON
The Senate moved closer to approving the New START nuclear arms treaty, which would be a feather in John Kerry’s cap (along with hopefully lessening the chances of world annihilation).
Apparently, Congress needs to learn that it’s difficult to feed a trillion-dollar enterprise with a diet of three-month budgets.
For the last minute Christmas shopper, National Review Online gives Stanley Kurtz a bully pulpit to defend his tome, Radical-in-Chief: Barack Obama and the Untold Story of American Socialism. Just because he cut taxes doesn’t mean he’s not a Marxist, says Kurtz.
Jim Braude draws a connection between the problems plaguing Spider-Man the Broadway show and the strange doings in the nation’s capital.
MUNICIPAL AFFAIRS
City to tax-exempt nonprofits: pony up more. Boston College and Wheelock to city: drop dead.
EDUCATION
The dime-dropping campaign against Marty Meehan’s job search continues unabated.
The state board of education votes 8-2 to lift the probation order on the Gloucester Community Arts Charter School, but requires the school to meet eight conditions. The Gloucester Times has the story, as well as a sidebar on how the fight against the school continues even as the Times calls for cooperation.
ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT
T. Boone Pickens, the oil magnate who launched a massive PR campaign promoting his desire to become a wind power magnate, returns to the warm embrace of fossil fuels.
The reeling fishing industry finally got some good news as the New Bedford Standard Times reports Congress voted to lift a legal roadblock that had prevented the United States from negotiating with Canada over increased catch limits for certain fish species, especially the very tasty yellowtailed flounder.
ECONOMY
In Massachusetts, the November home sales data remains depressed, depressing.
Bank of America wrongfully broke into this nice lady’s house and threw out her husband’s ashes, because it isn’t always that great at foreclosing on the houses it’s supposed to foreclose.
HEALth care
Federal bureaucrats want to review any insurance premium increases that top 10 percent, in a move that echoes policies already in place in Massachusetts.
TRANSPORTATION
The skies may be friendly, but the New England Center for Investigative Reporting says the air space above Massachusetts and ground below can be downright frightening. A review of two decades of records found hundreds of near-misses (actually, shouldn’t that be near-hits?) and averted runway wrecks in state airports big and small.
UTILITIES
Put away the tin cans and wires. Attorney General Martha Coakley has reached an agreement with Verizon for the company to significantly improve its service and equipment in 100 western Massachusetts communities where residents have experienced years of crackling connections and service disruptions.
REVELATION
Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, who perhaps would like to be president, decides it’s not very presidential to pal around with segregationists.
The Download wishes readers a happy holiday season as we pause to recharge our news-hungry batteries. Look for the next edition on January 3, 2011.
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