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Mon, 25 Jun 2012 16:12:34 -0400

Benjamin Landy’s Graph of the Day, “Has the Decline...

Fri, 04 Nov 2011 12:46:34 -0400

Benjamin Landy’s Graph of the Day, “Has the Decline of Unions Made America Less Equal?” looks at data from a recent study by Bruce Western and Jake Rosenfeld that shows income inequality today would be 20 percent lower if union density had remained.

Still confused as to what Occupy Wall Street is all about?...

Fri, 07 Oct 2011 16:50:48 -0400

Still confused as to what Occupy Wall Street is all about? Learn more about the income inequality the protesters are fighting in this graph.

In a provocative New York Times op-ed, Warren Buffett suggested...

Mon, 22 Aug 2011 14:50:00 -0400

In a provocative New York Times op-ed, Warren Buffett suggested that the government immediately raise taxes on Americans making more than $1 million—and even more so on those making in excess of $10 million. This set off a firestorm of criticism from conservatives, who said that this would “only” generate at most $73 billion in new revenue. The Century Foundation’s Benjamin Landy looks at what could be accomplished with $73 billion.

Crucial Role of Workforce Training in Addressing Unemployment

Mon, 22 Aug 2011 10:00:05 -0400

Finally someone in government has realized how important training and education is to solving our unemployment problems and the economic recession. The U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee published a report that examines long-term unemployment due to the recession and the role that workforce training can play in alleviating this problem. Currently, 42 percent of today’s 14.4 million unemployed Americans find themselves jobless and actively seeking work for at least six months, and 72 percent of those are deemed very-long-term unemployed (searching for work for at least one year). Although all demographics and industry sectors have witnessed such long-term unemployment, the Committee found that older workers, those with only a high-school degree, construction workers, and African-American workers have faced disproportionately high rates of long-term unemployment. “Addressing Long-Term Unemployment After The Great Recession: The Crucial Role Of Workforce Training” concludes that policymakers will need to simultaneously spur job creation while also investing in education and training programs that can prepare workers for new employment opportunities that will arise in the aftermath of the recovery, as well as help bridge the current mismatch between the skills employers are looking for and the skills potential employees present. This is a direct response to increasing reports of employers expressing difficulty finding skilled workers for key positions, despite the high ratio of unemployed workers to job openings.

—- Angelina Garneva, NYCETC intern

Israel's Settlement Enterprisera

Mon, 22 Aug 2011 09:22:05 -0400

By Sarah M. Aoun

With a United Nations vote on Palestinian statehood looming in September, international pressure has been building on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. In recent weeks however, a new and internal threat has emerged to challenge the Israeli PM. Since July, thousands of Israelis have been protesting against the rising cost of housing in Tel Aviv and its outskirts, putting an unaccustomed domestic spotlight on the settlement enterprise in occupied territories that has so drained Israeli resources.

While protestors — in what has been considered Israel’s largest demonstrations on any issue in over a decade — criticize what they consider to be the government’s indifference to the incredibly high cost of living, this does not seem to be the case in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. There, government subsidies of Israeli settlements offer economic incentives difficult to refuse.

Indeed, over the past several decades, the Israeli government has adopted an encouraging policy towards population shift and settlement building – globally considered to be a violation of international law. This investment across the Green Line has been intended to, and undoubtedly succeeded in, leading to an exponential settlement growth.

Settlements have been one of the most urgent and worrying elements of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since 1967. Over the past 35 years, more than 500,000 Israelis have made their homes in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, with leaders of the settler movement aiming to dash hopes of making these territories the core of a future Palestinian state.

The continuing building of these homes has also spurred a number of violent clashes over the years between Israeli settlers and the Palestinians living in these areas for centuries. According to statistics collected by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs occupied Palestinian territory (OCHAoPt), the majority of these attacks have been undertaken by the settlers. They have left mostly Palestinian children, women, and elderly severely injured, and some even dead.

According to the Fourth Geneva Convention, the Israeli government is supposed to provide protection to the people whose land it is occupying. However, it is evident that no serious measures have been taken by the government to address this issue, as is shown by the stagnant and even at times increasing number of attacks against Palestinian civilians.

The never-ending settlement growth has repeatedly exacerbated the Palestinians, and has reaffirmed their determination to take their plea to the UN and request a compliance with the pre-1967 borders. On the other side, it keeps fueling protestors’ dissatisfaction with the policies East of the Green Line, where the government spends twice as much on a settler as on another Israeli according to a recent study by the Adva Center.

It does not come as surprise then that over 15 percent of the public construction budget is used to expanding West Bank settlement, which are home to only 4 percent of Israeli citizens, according to a report published by the activist group Peace Now.

It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that the settlement enterprise undertaken by the Israeli government has become a fundamental driver of both the Palestinian’s UN call for statehood and the recent protests in Israel. This has not, however, deterred Netanyahu from recently approving the construction of an additional 4,300 homes in East Jerusalem.

However, as seen by the internal and external pressure he faces, it is not only the Israeli PM, but Israel itself, that will continue to deal the repercussions of decades-long policies that have favored maintaining the occupation and developing settlements over the interests of the broader population – until the demands of the protestors are met and priorities are re-evaluated.

Stop Coddling the Super-Rich

Mon, 15 Aug 2011 14:31:00 -0400

Here is a NYT great op-ed by Warren Buffet, the chairman and chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway, on the injustice of the tax system. It’s time for our government to get serious about shared sacrifice.

-Sara Aoun, TCF intern

New York Times

What you may have missed from The Century Foundation in July...

Thu, 11 Aug 2011 15:43:33 -0400

What you may have missed from The Century Foundation in July ‘11.

The War in Hipstamatic: A rare and beautiful look at...

Wed, 10 Aug 2011 12:15:00 -0400

The War in Hipstamatic: A rare and beautiful look at Afghanistan, through an iPhone.

Video from our event Who Deserves a College Education? See more...

Mon, 08 Aug 2011 12:05:26 -0400

Video from our event Who Deserves a College Education? See more here!

Our Final Day

Mon, 08 Aug 2011 11:57:03 -0400

August 4, 2011- Today is Danielle, Caroline and I last day interning at The Century Foundation. We have had an amazing experience working here and learned a lot in the process.

The events that we planned brought their own challenges. The first event we hosted “Social Media and the 2012 Election,” was challenging simply because the planning process was new to us. There are so many intricate details that go into planning event that we never thought of before working here. In the process of planning our second event we realized the importance of contacting people by calling them. Today we all rely heavily on technology and we rarely think of using an old fashion telephone device to get a hold of another person. The result was that we had a larger turn out than expected at the event. The third event pushed us to think creatively; we contacted various law firms, schools, etc. that would be interested in sending people to our event. Finally, our last event, brought the biggest challenge with so many people wrapping up their internships and heading on vacation, many people weren’t responsive to our emails. In the end the turn out was fantastic and the panelists discussion was insightful.

We’d like to thank all the Century Institute interns for coming to our events and supporting us in our endeavors. I have followed many of you through your internships by reading your blog posts. The work that you are all doing sounds fascinating. I hope that this blog will continue to flourish with a diverse array of content.

-Celi Lynch, IT Intern

Final 2011 Public Policy Intern Lunch Forum

Thu, 04 Aug 2011 15:41:00 -0400

Yesterday, The Century Foundation held the final Public Policy Forum for Interns of the summer, called Who Deserves a College Education? Our three panelists were: Richard Kahlenberg, senior education fellow at The Century Foundation; Ann Marcus, Director of The Steinhardt Institute of Higher Education Policy at NYU; and Dennis Parker, Director of the ACLU’s Racial Justice Program. The moderator of the event was Lee Daniels who is the Director of Communications at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and the Editor-In-Chief of The Defenders Online, the civil rights blog for the NAACP LDF.

The event centered on the debate over who should be the beneficiaries of college affirmative action policies. Each panelist brought a unique perspective to the event. Mr. Kahlenberg opened the event by discussing his belief that colleges should take socio-economic status into account when considering who to give a leg up to in the college admissions process. He cited statistics from a study by Anthony Carnevale and Stephen Rose of Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce. Mr. Kahlenberg said that “In the 1980s, college graduates earned about 40 percent more than high school graduates. Today, college graduates earn about 74 percent more than high school graduates. So the advantage of going to college has increased.” Here, Mr. Kahlenberg contrasted this evidence to people such as Professor X who in his recent book, In the Basement of the Ivory Tower: Confessions of an Accidental Academic, declared that America is over-educating its students and decreasing the value of the college education. As a rising senior in college, I understand how difficult the job market currently looks to recent college graduates, so it was really interesting to hear actual statistics that indicate that there is plenty of room for college graduates in the workforce.

Mr. Parker spoke next. He focused on how race is still an issue in the country and how, therefore, race should be taken into account as colleges decide on affirmative action policies. He used examples such as one study that showed that black men without a felony conviction were less likely to be called back for interviews than white men with one, and that more black families received sub-prime mortgages than white families, even when controlling for socio-economic status. These examples really helped to show why Mr. Parker believes that it would not be enough to only use socio-economic status when determining affirmative action policies in college admissions.

Finally, Dr. Marcus spoke. She brought an interesting perspective because of her past experience as a Dean of the Steinhardt School of Education and as Dean of Continuing Education at LaGuardia Community College. Her main point seemed to be that we as a country need to relax about college admissions. Dr. Marcus reminded us that there are many wonderful colleges in the United States and that the focus on just a few institutions can be very damaging for students. She also mentioned that we should be working harder to improve the quality of community colleges, and making this more of an educational policy focus.

Overall, it was a really interesting event and a great conclusion to the series!

Caroline Dreyspool, Public Affairs Intern

New York Public Policy Think Tank Zeroes In on Debate Over Dwindling Resources in Higher Education

Thu, 04 Aug 2011 11:08:58 -0400

New York Public Policy Think Tank Zeroes In on Debate Over Dwindling Resources in Higher Education:

Our event from yesterday was covered in Diverse: Issues In Higher Education magazine!

Medicaid: The Unspoken Constituency

Thu, 04 Aug 2011 11:07:00 -0400

This great post examines the “Quiet Constituency” of Medicaid patients who desperately need a voice.

-Hollie Russon Gilman

The Ronkonkoma Hub – An Evolving Success Story of Downtown...

Thu, 04 Aug 2011 10:00:05 -0400

The Ronkonkoma Hub – An Evolving Success Story of Downtown Redevelopment by Max Sokol, RPA

It is important to keep in mind that transit-oriented development (TOD) on Long Island is a work-in-progress, and that successful planning endeavors should be celebrated en route to on-the-ground implementation. The Ronkonkoma Hub, an approximately 54-acre redevelopment site adjacent to the Ronkonkoma Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) station, is one such success story that warrants recognition as it continues to unfold. In September 2010, a major milestone was achieved when the Brookhaven Town Board accepted the (draft) Ronkonkoma Hub Transit-Oriented Development Land Use Plan, and the project continues to move forward at an exciting pace. After reviewing submissions from the Request for Expressions of Interest (RFEI) that were due June 30, 2011, the Town intends to release a Request for Proposals (RFP) later this year with a goal of selecting a master developer for the site.

In my previous Tumblr post, I discussed that my work this summer at the Regional Plan Association (RPA) is centered around coordinating a downtown redevelopment forum on Long Island, called Making It Happen. At the upcoming forum, Brookhaven Town Supervisor Mark Lesko, one of our case study presenters, will offer an overview of the process followed, the strategies pursued, and the expected outcome of the Ronkonkoma Hub redevelopment. As part of my preparation for the forum, I conducted a site visit of the Ronkonkoma Hub. My goal in posting this picture (above) is to add a visual dimension to the recent (7/17/11) New York Times editorial, which leaves the reader with a mental image of what the Ronkonkoma Hub currently is (“an unlovely place”) and what it is envisioned to become (“a cool destination”). I encourage you to refer back to my picture after reading the first sentence of the editorial, which states: “From high atop the five-story parking garage at Ronkonkoma’s Long Island Rail Road station, you can look far out at … not much.” Within the online Ronkonkoma Hub Photo Gallery, the Town of Brookhaven contrasts existing conditions with proposed concepts for the redevelopment site.

The editorial concludes with an interesting blend of pessimism and possibility: “Resistance to change, and tolerance of stagnation, have trapped many old suburbs in a downward cycle. Here’s hoping Mr. Lesko can break it.” To put a more positive spin on the Ronkonkoma Hub redevelopment, I would counter that the ongoing efforts to plan and implement the vision contained within the adopted (draft) TOD Land Use Plan serve as proof that Supervisor Lesko has already bucked the trend and broken the downward cycle. Here’s hoping Mr. Lesko can inspire other municipal elected officials on Long Island to follow suit.

Obama Anti-Poverty Programs Begin to Take Shape

Thu, 04 Aug 2011 09:00:05 -0400

A lot of my time here at NYCETC is spent researching various programs that, at their core, share the basic goal of reducing poverty and helping those with the biggest barriers to employment - disconnected youth, ex-offenders, people suffering from substance abuse, people with disabilities etc. It has been a stark reality check; a far cry from the academic theorizing that made up a good amount of my college education. It has become clear to me that no life detail is too small to be addressed and no program can deliver long-term success to its participants without comprehensively seeking a solution to the smallest of problems. For this reason I am incredibly impressed by City Limits’ July/August issue dedicated to the issue of poverty in New York, entitled “Remember Poverty? The Problem 1.5 Millions New Yorkers Can’t Afford to Forget.”

The entire issue is great and sheds light and depth on a problem that is often discussed through blanket statements and a good amount of distance between the speaker and his subject (those actually experiencing poverty). I say this only because I’ve caught myself at times speaking about poverty in this manner, getting caught up in all that I know from an academic standpoint but failing to realize that I don’t fully understand the issue since I have had no complete direct knowledge or experience. For this reason I found the article What Would Help Poor New Yorkers? Take Your Pick to be especially informative in showing that poverty is not a black and white problem that requires black and white solutions. Everything lies in the gray matter, as this quote demonstrates:

“For them [the Harlem residents being profiled], poverty is not a mere function of not enough jobs or too much dependency on the system but a complex interplay of life events: jobs that disappear, family members who die, the search for affordable rents and schooling, the nation’s often incoherent immigration policy, the endless scramble for time that is the lot of any parent of young children. Poverty is a patchwork problem and, they indicate, it requires a multitude of solutions.”

This is directly connected to another article that I’d like to highlight that examines two neighborhood-based anti-poverty initiatives proposed by President Obama - Promise Neighborhoods and Choice Neighborhoods - that attempt to approach national poverty by tackling structural issues of education and law enforcement. Sadly these programs are greatly threatened by the ridiculous budget cuts going on, so we have yet to see what might happen in this arena.

— Angelina Garneva, NYCETC Intern

Taxing the Poor

Wed, 03 Aug 2011 17:39:00 -0400

benjaminlandy:

However bad the debt ceiling deal may look to progressives, we can at least be relieved that the government has avoided default, for now. What was once the far right of the Republican Party, and is now its center, managed to rein in its more eschatological elements, who were actively inviting default. At the end of the day, senior citizens will continue to collect their Social Security checks, and children on Medicaid will be able to see a doctor. Still, the drama of the past several weeks has revealed just how radical and polarized the debate over the economy has become, with many Republicans even suggesting that taxes aren’t high enough… on the poor.

It began last April, when House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) was asked about the debt ceiling on CNBC. Redirecting attention from the question of whether taxes should be raised on the rich, Cantor interjected, “we also have a situation in this country where you’re nearing 50 percent of people who don’t even pay income taxes.” The talking point was quickly picked up by Cantor’s colleagues, and broadcast throughout conservative media. “The place where you’ve got to get revenues has to come from the middle class,” Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) told MSNBC. “[We have] to make sure that there’s a civic duty on the part of every one of us to help this government to, uh, to be better.” And Senator Dan Coats (R-IN) reiterated the talking point just last week, arguing that “everyone needs to have some skin the game… we all have a stake in this country and what needs to be done. I think it’s important that this burden not just fall on 50 percent of the people but falls on all of us in some form.”

This statistic, while not technically wrong, is purposefully misleading — based on a selective definition of taxes that excludes about three fifths of all revenues. While it is true that 51 percent of tax filers do not make enough money to qualify for even the lowest income tax bracket, they are still subject to payroll, state, local, and sales taxes.

Source: Congressional Budget Office, 2005

Payroll taxes, which are deductions for Social Security, Medicare and unemployment insurance, are mostly paid by the bottom 90 percent of earners; about 75 percent of all American households actually pay more in payroll taxes than in income taxes. And although around a quarter of Americans pay no taxes at all, they are mostly students, the elderly, or the unemployed.

Source: Office of Management and Budget

As the above graph shows, employment taxes have been growing as a proportion of total US revenues for at least the last fifty years, and will soon eclipse income taxes if the current trend continues. Corporate taxes have also fallen dramatically as a percentage of revenues, from a high of 32 percent in 1952 to just 6.6 percent in 2009.

Throughout the debt ceiling crisis, Republicans have employed the “51 percent of Americans pay no taxes” meme to shift blame towards the poor and middle class, at a time when populist anger might have been directed against the wealthy. The truth is that when payroll taxes are factored in atop federal and local income taxes, the effective tax rate for people earning over $370,000 a year is nearly identical to those middle class households earning between $43,000 and $69,000. America’s richest citizens, despite Republican protestations, are paying far less of their share than they were a generation ago, leaving the United States with one of the greatest income gaps in the developed world.

Reposted from my Graph of the Day Series at Taking Note.

"Making It Happen" on Long Island

Wed, 03 Aug 2011 17:35:00 -0400

This summer, during my internship at the Regional Plan Association (RPA), I have the privilege of helping to coordinate a downtown redevelopment forum on Long Island. The purpose of the forum is to showcase best practices in transit-oriented development (TOD) through a combination of information sessions, interactive discussions, and illustrative case study presentations of success from Long Island and the greater region. The invited participants are Long Island’s chief elected officials and planning directors from those municipalities with potential for downtown redevelopment.

There is great redevelopment potential throughout Long Island – as uncovered in a 2010 Long Island Index report, “Places to Grow,” prepared by RPA – but one significant challenge is how to realize this potential. One of the overriding goals of the upcoming forum is for the case study presenters to impart lessons learned and replicable strategies for success in planning for and implementing downtown redevelopment. The forum will appropriately be called, Making It Happen, and the case study presenters will be elected officials and planning directors who are doing just that.

~Max Sokol, RPA

Gov. Cuomo Heads Inquiry into Groups Receiving Federal Funds

Wed, 03 Aug 2011 17:34:59 -0400

After allocations over the allocations of Medicaid money being used by the Philip and Joel Levy brothers, the Gov is calling for a widespread investigation into how money is spent.

“Executives at these not-for-profits should be using the taxpayer dollars they receive to help New Yorkers, not to line their own pockets,” Governor Cuomo said.

-Hollie Russon Gilman

Wednesday Event! Hope you can make it. Please RSVP to...

Mon, 01 Aug 2011 17:51:22 -0400

Wednesday Event! Hope you can make it. Please RSVP to brownbag@tcf.org