Norway, Texas

WHEN asked about income inequality, Judge Skeet Jones of Loving County was, at first, quizzical. The topic, it seemed, had never come up before. But on hearing how the Gini index is calculated and how this dusty corner of west Texas scores, the judge (county chief executive) became intrigued. Loving County (pictured) is the most equal county in America. Its Gini score, at 0.21 (where zero is perfect equality and 1 means one fellow has all the income) beats Norway’s (see chart). That makes sense, agreed Mr Jones. Many of Loving County’s workers have the same employer—the county itself. The poverty rate is far lower than the statewide or national figures, and by the judge’s count, only four residents are unemployed.

Conversely, although the county is rich (in oil and gas), its residents are not. Most of the mineral rights are held by people who live elsewhere, and the median household income in the county is about $39,000, or about $14,000 lower than the national number. “If you had a lot of income, you wouldn’t want to live here, would you?” asked Mr Jones, cheerfully. “I’d live in Lake Tahoe.”


There would certainly be more amenities in Lake Tahoe, a pleasant resort on the California-Nevada border. The 2010 census found Loving County to be the least-populous in the country, with just 82 people scattered across almost 700 square miles of desert. The county seat, Mentone, is technically not even a town, although it has a courthouse, a petrol station, a taco truck and about 20 residents. There are no schools in Loving County, no regular churches and no grocery stores.

In other respects, though, the county is oddly like Norway. It has staggering oil reserves. It is ethnically quite homogeneous: most of the residents are white, with Joneses, Hoppers and Haleys being the main subgroups. Civic participation is lively. In one election, not that long ago, the number of registered voters exceeded the number of county residents by two to one. Social cohesion is high, although debates are occasionally lively, as when a Jones and a Hopper square off in an election.


And then there is the pervasive fairness. Regardless of wages, the locals’ consumption patterns are remarkably similar. This is because there is not much choice in Loving: the taco truck is the only place in the county to buy a hot lunch, although the petrol station sells ham sandwiches wrapped in cellophane.

At the other extreme is Louisiana’s East Carroll Parish, which is about 800 miles away from Loving County, although the states border one another. East Carroll Parish is America’s least-equal county. It is about as unequal as South Africa, with a Gini score of 0.65. This is largely because nearly half of its 7,500 residents are poor.

Before the civil war, black slaves toiled in cotton plantations in the area. Today, agriculture is still the main industry, but the parish also has a small hospital and a handful of lawyers and other professionals. White people make up about a third of the population, and they do well enough. African-Americans in East Carroll are poorer, less educated and less likely to be employed. There are very few immigrants in the area. De jure segregation ended two generations ago, but the county’s only public high school is still 99% black. White families prefer a private school, which has the Rebel as its mascot.

The government tries to help. On a warm recent evening about a dozen people—men and women, black and white—gathered at the parish library for a presentation by officials from the federal Small Business Administration (SBA), which extends low-interest loans to small businesses that have been operating for at least two years and show promise. The SBA has helped many fledgling entrepreneurs, including some in north-eastern Louisiana. Several references were made to a nearby hot-sauce company which has done well out of army contracts. Yet in a place where median household income is less than half the American norm, many locals will struggle to scrape up enough savings to start a business, or enough customers to keep things afloat for two months, much less two years.

Extreme cases such as Loving County and East Carroll Parish only tell you so much. The populations of American counties range from fewer than 100 to nearly 10m in Los Angeles County. Regardless of what you are measuring, the outliers tend to be tiny counties—it is much easier for 100 people to be far above or below average than for millions to be. Sure enough, the five most- and least-equal counties are all small—with one exception. New York County (Manhattan), with 1.6m residents, is the third-most-unequal county in America. Not everyone makes it there, but those who do make it by the sackfull.

http://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21603490-places-america-are-equal-norway-or-unequal-south-africa-norway


Posted in full as the economist has limits on the number of articles you can view a month.

Very interesting and a big thumbs up for Texas..

Very interesting, and I'd say if they have a taco truck they're pretty squared away as far as food goes

I think if more people knew about income inequality and its harsh effects, more people would be motivated to do something about it.

 

IN MANY WAYS, Loving County has a lot in common with many of the mining towns in more remote areas of NSW, Queensland and especially Western Australia, especially those that build mega mines reliant on fly-in/fly-out (FIFO) workforces...

BIG "multinational" Corporations no longer have the local connections and deny all social and civic responsibilities ~ while claiming, even demanding equal rights to common citizens !

WITH many big companies today, 80-90% of their shareholders don't even live in the same country, let alone counties..