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Cory Booker’s plan to fight wealth inequality: give poor kids money
Vox.com ^ | October 22, 2018 | Sarah Kliffsarah

Posted on 10/22/2018 6:05:38 PM PDT by EinNYC

America has a massive, growing racial wealth gap. The median white family today holds nearly 10 times the wealth of the median black family.

Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) is introducing a bill aimed at closing that gap. His idea is to give lower-income kids a sizable nest egg (nearly $50,000 in some cases) that they could use for wealth-building purchases, like a down payment on a house or college tuition.

These “opportunity accounts” would, theoretically, make sure all children have significant assets when they enter adulthood, rather than just those who grow up in wealthier homes.

“It would be a dramatic change in our country to have low-income people break out of generational poverty,” Booker said in an interview with Vox. “We could rapidly bring security into those families’ lives, and that is really exciting to me.”

Similar ideas have swirled around think tanks since the early 2000s, but Booker appears to be the first high-profile senator to introduce legislation to create such a program. As possible 2020 presidential nominees like Booker begin to unveil ambitious policy ideas — like Sen. Bernie Sanders’s (I-VT) Medicare-for-all plan or Kamala Harris’s (D-CA) new cash assistance plan — Booker appears ready to focus on racial inequality in America, and how to solve it.

Opportunity accounts, explained America’s wealth gap grew rapidly through the late 20th century. In 1963, families at the top of America’s wealth distribution had six times the wealth of those in the middle. By 2012, the wealthiest had 12 times the assets of middle-income families.

Specific government policies have driven the racial gap by making it specifically harder for minorities to accrue wealth. The decades-long practice of the Federal Housing Authority refuse to underwrite housing loans to many black families, for example, made it difficult for those families to pass on the earnings of real estate to their children the way a white family might.

Booker notes that his own parents, who are African American, essentially had to pose as a white couple to purchase a house in a predominantly white neighborhood in 1969. They had a white couple put in the offer on the house, but Booker’s parents then showed up to the closing.

“I know the difference it meant for my family to be able to buy that house and accrue that wealth,” he says. “I know the Herculean things they had to do to get into that neighborhood.”

Booker’s proposal is meant to target young children who haven’t benefited from the type of situation he did.


TOPICS: Chit/Chat; Humor
KEYWORDS: communismkills; corybooker; marxism; neverlivedinnewark; newark; newjersey; redistribution; voxsux
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OMG. Just when you thought Corey Booker couldn't be MORE stupid, there he is, breaking his own record. I worked summers to earn my college money and I was a work-study student while going to college. My parents worked like dogs to put food on the table and buy a house. NO GOVERNMENT ENTITY HELPED THEM. Why on earth should lower-income kids get $50,000 handed to them on a silver platter? What's to stop them from spending it on drugs, booze, fancy threads, a stainless steel grill on their teeth, a hot whip, and so on? Not everyone knows how to spend money wisely. Maybe there's a reason their parents are "lower-income". Maybe their parents cut class instead of learning how to read, write, and calculate well, the better to equip themselves to earn a decent living.

This is just SUCH a totally ridiculous idea, that I had to take a drink of water to stop sputtering and choking when I heard this first on the radio and then found it on Vox. Corey Booker, you are a first-rate dummocrap a@@.

1 posted on 10/22/2018 6:05:38 PM PDT by EinNYC
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To: EinNYC

correction

Cory Booker’s plan to fight wealth inequality: give poor kids YOUR money


2 posted on 10/22/2018 6:07:22 PM PDT by a fool in paradise (Denounce DUAC - The Democrats Un-American Activists Committee)
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To: EinNYC

Nobody is stopping you from opening your wallet, Dude.


3 posted on 10/22/2018 6:07:28 PM PDT by Huskrrrr
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To: EinNYC

Meanwhile, demodopes lock poor kids out of jobs with minimum wage laws.


4 posted on 10/22/2018 6:09:06 PM PDT by samtheman (On to victory in November)
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To: EinNYC

He’s welcome to give poor kids every dime from his wallet and that of the DNC.


5 posted on 10/22/2018 6:09:43 PM PDT by ealgeone (SCRIPTURE DOES NOT CHANGE!)
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To: EinNYC

The sleight-of-hand here is income vs “wealth.”

Wealth is nothing more than income that wasn’t spent on Escalades, bling and hoes but was saved or invested in assets like houses and or the stock market.

Two people can have exactly the same income but one can have negative wealth while the other has positive wealth.

The object here seems to be to take “wealth” away from the people who accumulated it and give it to people who will once again piss it away on Escalades, bling and hoes.


6 posted on 10/22/2018 6:09:59 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum (Democracy dies when Democrats refuse to accept the result of a democratic election they didn't win.)
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To: a fool in paradise

Give me 50K as a young male and I’ll be dead in a week. If I don’t get robbed I will have had a fine time on hookers, fine booze, hotel rooms, and limosenes.


7 posted on 10/22/2018 6:10:40 PM PDT by blackdog
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To: a fool in paradise

Um. What do they have to DO to him to get the $? (Too soon?)


8 posted on 10/22/2018 6:11:09 PM PDT by Yaelle
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To: EinNYC

9 posted on 10/22/2018 6:12:05 PM PDT by OttawaFreeper ("The Gardens was founded by men-sportsmen-who fought for their country" Conn Smythe, 1966)
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To: EinNYC

These “kids will piss it away on 22” Dayton Rims for their 82 Coup DeVille.


10 posted on 10/22/2018 6:12:25 PM PDT by Ouderkirk (Life is about ass, you're either covering, hauling, laughing, kicking, kissing, or behaving like one)
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To: Ouderkirk

Just give them a gun. They’ll take care of the rest. I’ll pay for my own.


11 posted on 10/22/2018 6:14:44 PM PDT by DIRTYSECRET (urope. Why do they put up with this.)
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To: EinNYC

Booger for brains.


12 posted on 10/22/2018 6:14:46 PM PDT by Leep (Thanks)
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To: EinNYC

Oprah already did this something like this and the results were predictable:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1996-08-27-9608270239-story.html


13 posted on 10/22/2018 6:16:22 PM PDT by CaptainK ("no collusion, no obstruction, he's a leaker")
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To: EinNYC

Hey, no fair! Where was he 70 years ago? I was a poor kid.


14 posted on 10/22/2018 6:17:15 PM PDT by MayflowerMadam ("Do not discount anything in which Donald Trump is involved." - Rush Limbaugh)
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To: EinNYC

They’ll spend it on drugs and sneakers. The rest, they’ll waste.


15 posted on 10/22/2018 6:18:42 PM PDT by GnuThere
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To: EinNYC

Im sure that horse toothed Puerto Rican broad is on board. Like you know, like wow..


16 posted on 10/22/2018 6:18:52 PM PDT by Track9 (How hot a fire will it be when each Dem gets their due..)
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To: EinNYC

Stay away from the poor kids, Cory.


17 posted on 10/22/2018 6:19:48 PM PDT by dead (Give everyone in the migrant horde lawnmowers and Mexico will have beautiful grass.)
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To: Ouderkirk

A few years ago, my organization hired a new Chief Operating Officer.

One of the conditions that he asked for and somehow got approved was oversized rims for his company car. I don’t think I ever saw it in the parking lot but the lot was full during the day.

He lasted about a year.


18 posted on 10/22/2018 6:20:50 PM PDT by wally_bert (I will competently make sure the thing is done incompetently.)
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To: Ouderkirk

Many years ago Oprah wanted to invest some of her wealth in helping some of the worst Chicago public middle and high schools (with nearly 100% black students). After a few years she gave up because she realized the kids literally cared more about having $200 Michael Jordan shoes and cell phones than getting a good education.

So she pulled out of the Chicago schools and directed her efforts to developing girls’ schools in African countries. She knew she was wasting her time and money trying to help the Chicago schools.


19 posted on 10/22/2018 6:24:02 PM PDT by RooRoobird20 ("Democrats haven't been this angry since Republicans freed the slaves.")
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To: EinNYC

My son went to school full time, worked full time, while paying for his own apartment and upkeep. He graduated with honors and is doing quite well at 41.


20 posted on 10/22/2018 6:24:55 PM PDT by Hootowl
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