Possible Readings for
G. Meeting Basic Needs in the U.S.

“Inclusionary Zoning,” PolicyLink, 24 p.

http://www.policylink.org/EDTK/IZ

Read the first two sections — “What is It?” (1 p.) and “Why Use It?” (3 p.) Skim the rest of the 7 sections. (10 p.)

By linking the production of affordable housing to private market development, Inclusionary Zoning expands the supply of affordable housing while dispersing affordable units throughout a city or county to broaden opportunity and foster mixed-income communities.

“Inclusionary zoning’s big moment,” by Alyssa Katz, City Limits, January/February 2005, 7 p.

http://www.citylimits.org/content/articles/articleView.cfm?articlenumber=1212

Cities across the country are forcing developers to build affordable housing. Could New York soon join them?

“Conservatives and Mass Transit: Is It Time for a New Look?,” a study by the Free Congress Research and Education Foundation for the American Public Transit Association (APTA), Washington, DC, 1995?, 37 p.

http://www.apta.com/research/info/online/documents/conserve.pdf

The dominance of the automobile is not a free-market outcome, but the result of massive government intervention on behalf of the automobile. That intervention came at the expense of privately-owned, privately-funded, tax-paying public transit systems.

“Twenty Questions: Social Justice Quiz,” by Bill Quigley, CommonDreams.org, February 11, 2005, 6 p.

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0211-32.htm

Some startling facts about income inequality and military spending.

“Who’s Better Off This Labor Day? Numbers Tell,” opinion column by Derrick Z. Jackson, Boston Globe, August 31, 2001, 2 p.

http://www.commondreams.org/views01/0831-01.htm

http://www.zmag.org/numbers.htm

If the average pay for production workers had risen at the same level as CEO pay since 1990, the annual salary would be $120,491, not $24,668. This and other facts on income inequality and priorities.

“Going Backwards: Report Shows Americans Have More ‘Labor Days’,” opinion column by Steven Greenhouse, New York Times, September 1, 2001, 3 p.

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines01/0901-02.htm

American workers work more hours each year that their counterparts in all other industrial nations.

“Economic Inequality in US,” opinion column by Huck Gutman, DAWN (Pakistan), July 1, 2002, 6 p.

http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0701-05.htm

The United States has the greatest disparity of wealth in the entire industrialized world. The causes are capitalism, government, and pay.

“Income Inequality in the United States, 1913–1998” by Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez, November 2004 (a longer and updated version of Piketty and Saez Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 118, No. 1, February 2003), 76 p.

http://elsa.berkeley.edu/~saez/piketty-saezOUP04US.pdf

Wage inequality has been extremely stable in the long run. The decline in income inequality is for the most part due to the major shocks during the 1914-1945 period, and they were never able to fully recover from these shocks, probably because of the dynamic effects of progressive taxation on capital accumulation and pre-tax income inequality.

“Executive Summary,” of The State of Working America, 2006-2007, Economic Policy Institute, September 2006, 29 p.

http://www.stateofworkingamerica.org/intro_exec.html

The biggest challenge in the new economy is not growth per se, but rather how growth is distributed.

“Crisis of Capitalism?” by James Petras, Z Magazine, Volume 20, Number 1, January 2007, 14 p.

http://zmagsite.zmag.org/Jan2007/petras0107.html

While the left preaches “the crisis and end” of U.S. capitalism, most workers are complaining about the bigger take of their bosses, their intensified exploitation leading to rising productivity, and their extended work day and work year because of cuts in vacation, sick time, and holidays.

“Facts and Figures on Poverty,” United Nations Development Programme, 2 p.

http://www.teamstoendpoverty.org/wq_pages/en/visages/chiffres.php

Basic facts about world poverty and successes in overcoming it.