This New York Times story looks at how the federal tax deduction for home mortgage interest, which chiefly benefits the middle and upper classes, has been a chief driver of economic inequality in the U.S.

As Sacramento Bee editor Foon Rhee details in this piece, the ballyhooed stock market rally chiefly benefits a small elite of Americans.

A concept that The Social Democrat would like to see gain more currency in American social discourse is that of “rentier income.” Rentier income is income that is earned not from making a positive contribution to society, but either by inheritance or by owning things that appreciate in value, chiefly real estate. In this article, Sean McElwee looks at the influential work of French economist Thomas Pikkety, who has shown that unearned wealth breeds more unearned wealth.

California last year decided to raise its minimum wage to $15 by 2022, and some businesses are planning to leave the state to lower-cost Nevada. As Kerry Cavanaugh points out in this L.A. Times opinion piece, critics are missing the point: housing costs have gotten so high in the Golden State that fully one third of Californians are paying over half of their monthly income on shelter. The Social Democrat strongly supports a federal minimum wage keyed to regional living costs.

In this 15-minute video clip, U Mass Lowell economics prof William Lazonick ties the decline of good middle-class livelihoods to practices by corporate executives, often under the control of private equity investors, designed to increase stock-price-related compensation rather than invest in greater productivity.

Los Angeles counts 58,000 homeless: up 23% in just the last year. The urban area’s mix of too many low-paying jobs and high housing costs, typical of most big American cities, is driving the crisis, writes Steve Lopez on the L.A. Times opinion pages.

This Washington Post analysis of Trump’s one-percenter administration demonstrates the yawning inequalities of wealth that make America an outlier among advanced democracies.