- "More than half of renters-21.1 million households-were cost burdened in 2012, paying more than 30 percent of income for housing. This is the greatest number of housing cost burdened renters on record."
- "Twenty-two billionaires-just shy of two percent of the world's total-have purchased units in a condominium tower being built in Sunny Isles Beach, a small city in Miami-Dade County."
- "More than half of families in the United States earn $60,000 or less per year."
- "Residents of Gowanus, Brooklyn, generally agree on one thing: The Whole Foods opening this month will irrevocably change the neighborhood."
- "He cited streetlights as a prime example of Detroit's decline. Nearly half of the city's 88,000 street lamps are dark, according to city estimates."
- "New York City, which has a combined city and state tax of over 12 percent, was the number one city for adding multimillionaires worth $30 million or more over the past year."
- "She belongs to a vast and invisible tribe of more than 22,000 homeless children in New York, the highest number since the Great Depression, in the most unequal metropolis in America."
- "There are superyachts. There are trawler yachts. And now-it had to happen-there are super-trawler yachts."
- "Georgia agencies providing home heating help are reporting record numbers of applicants this winter."
- "A recent visit to their old country club for a wedding underscored that its society - 'all about things and jewelry and all that silly stuff' - was no longer congenial, Mrs. Meerow said. 'That's not who we are anymore.'"
- "About 1.3 million long-term jobless Americans will lose federal benefits if Congress fails to reauthorize the Emergency Unemployment Compensation program, which expires at the end of December."
- "Who Among Us Wouldn't Listen To A Guy Pitch An Investment Involving 'Pay-Per-View Programming Starring Carmen Electra' And Proceed To Wire Him $195,000?"
- "More than half of Minnesota's detox centers have closed, forcing jails and hospital ERs to cope with chronic drinkers and addicts."
- "A limited-edition line of rose gold-colored, all-metal Starbucks gift cards sold out in seconds this year, despite the steep $450 price tag."
- "Forty-six percent of New Yorkers are poor or nearly poor."
- "Just over a year after launching, though, the only customer review on Blackjet's iPhone app called the [Uber for private jets] service 'horrible,' complaining about the one month approval process after paying the $2,500 fee: 'I've had less hassle getting into the White House (and I'm not kidding about that).'"
- "The most important difference between Suzanne Collins's Hunger Games and my variant is that the poverty in the real world is unfathomably worse than the poverty depicted in the series."
Daily Meme: Tales of Two Classes
I’m writing to you today with a sense of urgency that I haven’t felt since I began my journalism career. As executive editor of The American Prospect, I’ve witnessed firsthand how independent journalism serves as a crucial bulwark against the erosion of our democratic institutions. Today, that role is more vital than ever. Can you step up today and show your support?
The winds of authoritarianism are blowing stronger. We’re seeing alarming signs of a coordinated effort to silence critical voices and undermine the very foundations that support progressive causes. As Bob Kuttner presciently wrote in our August 2024 issue, a weaponized IRS could attack the very foundations of the progressive movement. We need readers to step up and help us dig in for the long haul.
We’re falling behind in our spring fundraising campaign, and with so much at stake we can’t afford to come up short. If you value fearless, independent journalism that holds the powerful accountable and defends democracy, now is the time to step up. The American Prospect depends on reader support to stay in the fight. Pitch in today and help us close the gap. Please consider making a donation today.
–David Dayen, Executive Editor
