The amount of greenery on your street depends on the amount of green in your pockets. I wrote about trees and inequality, America's shade gap, and whether tree coverage is connected to crime. Plus on this Christmas Eve, an article about 🎄 felt right. americaninequality.substack.com/p/trees-and-...

The amount of greenery on your street depends on the amount of green in your pockets. I wrote about trees and inequality, America's shade gap, and whether tree coverage is connected to crime. Plus on this Christmas Eve, an article about 🎄 felt right. americaninequality.substack.com/p/trees-and-...

Will be live tomorrow discussing whether the $6.25 billion investment from the Dell family that is offering $250 dollars to 25 million children is a good idea. open.substack.com/live-stream/...

Electricity bills are rising 3x faster than inflation. Data centers are devouring supply and raising the cost of living for households. I show which states are feeling it worst and what we can do about it. open.substack.com/pub/american...

Our Substack fundraiser with GiveDirectly is running until Dec 31, but their Giving Tuesday match is only live until midnight tonight! Help claim the remaining $300K match funds before they expire: givedirectly.org/americaninequality

Our Substack fundraiser with GiveDirectly is running until Dec 31, but their Giving Tuesday match is only live until midnight tonight! Help claim the remaining $300K match funds before they expire: givedirectly.org/americaninequality

I’m working with GiveDirectly and a group of authors to fight global poverty. I’ll be matching donations this week and so will @give-directly.bsky.social - you can be a real change-maker! open.substack.com/pub/american...

“Bank CEOs should be forced to have a framed version of this image on their desks” We are *really* bad at forecasting

Baby boomers hold more than $85 trillion in assets, making them the richest generation by far. New research explores the extraordinary rise in their good fortunes — one that experts say successive generations will be hard-pressed to replicate.

Spoke with WaPo about why it’s so much harder for GenZ to rise up the economic ladder

I spoke with WaPo about what is driving the generational wealth gap. wapo.st/43DtV7X

I love this new chart I made. Colors. Message. Clarity. It’s just doing it for me.

High school debate taught me two things. (1) Respect the arguments of others and (2) Know what your opponent is going to say before they say it. I may write a lot about inequality, but the US has seen huge environmental and higher ed improvements. americaninequality.substack.com/p/the-world-...

High school debate taught me two things. (1) Respect the arguments of others and (2) Know what your opponent is going to say before they say it. I may write a lot about inequality, but the US has seen huge environmental and higher ed improvements. americaninequality.substack.com/p/the-world-...

I’ll be live with @colinwoodard.bsky.social at 1:30pm ET discussing how the divides within the nation are driving much of our political, policy, and economic conversations open.substack.com/live-stream/...

7 million people gathered across 2,600 small towns and cities yesterday for the No Kings protest, making it the largest single-day protest in America in the last 50 years

I spoke with @julieroginsky.bsky.social about the increasingly important role of states in building out a new progressive machine. We covered which states are leading and lagging in the fight for more opportunity. open.substack.com/pub/american...

I dug into half a million detention records to uncover where the immigration court system is buckling. I identify why courts are drowning under backlogs, where immigrants are crammed into facilities, and which detention centers are profiting. americaninequality.substack.com/p/injustice-...

Really looking forward to this conversation.

I’ll be live with @julieroginsky.bsky.social on Friday at 10am ET discussing how state policies are now driving some of the biggest differences in outcomes across regions. Find out if the state where you live is leading or lagging in creating opportunity open.substack.com/live-stream/...

Only 35% of Americans now consider college “very important,” down from 53% in 2019 and 75% in 2010, per Gallup.

Remarkable map: A century-long depopulation in the heartlands. The Decade Every U.S. County Peaked In Population As Recorded by the US Census (1820-2020) @jeremybney.bsky.social substack.com/@jeremybney/...

We are at risk of losing the war on cancer. Here are America’s biggest threats on the front americaninequality.substack.com/p/the-next-c...

The geography of hate crimes maps onto economic despair and social fragmentation. Communities under stress turn on their most vulnerable members.

@pbsnews.org needs our help, which is why I was thrilled to share my data and maps with them for this article on which parts of the US have the lowest life expectancies. Support PBS while you can! youtu.be/LsToZlTBeGc?...

The same communities that lack good schools, jobs, and services also have the highest crime rates. This isn't coincidence - it's structural neglect.

Climate change and social justice intersect in transportation. Long car commutes forced by housing inequality drive emissions. Environmental and social problems intertwine.

It's been a rollercoaster of a week. @c-hughes.bsky.social and I will be Live on Monday discussing what's next for the future of the U.S. economy. open.substack.com/live-stream/...

Transit-oriented development isn't just urban planning - it's social justice. Good transit access should be a right, not a luxury good.

The "spatial mismatch" problem: Jobs concentrate in areas where poor people can't afford to live, creating epic commutes that drain time, money, and health.

When affordable housing is far from job centers, working families sacrifice hours of their lives daily just to survive economically. Time is the ultimate inequality.

Thrilled to collaborate with @qasimrashid.com on this piece about labor inequality in America open.substack.com/pub/qasimras...

I'm having a conversation with @c-hughes.bsky.social, co-founder of Facebook and chair of the @economicsecurityproject.org, on Monday 9/15 at noon. open.substack.com/live-stream/.... We'll be talking about his new book Marketcrafters and what's coming for the U.S. economy. Add it to your cal!

There's a narrative that declining alcohol consumption is a bad sign because it means there's less socialization going on. However, alcohol is one of the worst destroyers of US communities. Every 3 min, a person loses their life due to alcohol abuse americaninequality.substack.com/p/alcohol-an...

I'll be live with @c-hughes.bsky.social, founder of @economicsecurityproject.org talking about what's in store for the U.S. economy. Make sure to tune in and add to your calendars. open.substack.com/live-stream/...

🚨 Manufacturing used to be the American Dream ladder. Automation, declining unions, and trade shocks have broken that ladder for workers without college degrees.

Last week, our Director of Cash Initiatives Shafeka Hashash joined @jeremybney.bsky.social on Substack Live to talk about what it really takes to build direct cash programs that deliver for families. Watch a highlight!

This crisis isn't over

SNAP helps 40 million Americans get $127/month for food. The National School Lunch Program serves 30 million daily lunches. These programs work - but we need $20B more to end food insecurity.

Black families are TWICE as likely to be food insecure as white families (19.1% vs 7.9%). 8 of the 10 most food insecure counties are at least 60% Black. Systemic inequality is real.

In food deserts, milk costs 5% more and cereal costs 25% more than suburban areas. Being poor is expensive - especially when it comes to basic nutrition.

🚨 44 MILLION Americans are food insecure - that's 1 in 8 people struggling to eat daily. We're now at the WORST levels of food insecurity since 1995.

TODAY: ESP's Shafeka Hashash joins @jeremybney.bsky.social to talk about the state of direct cash right now. Don't miss it!

90% of California's homeless population lost their homes in the SAME regions where they already lived. This isn't about immigration - it's about housing costs.

Happening TOMORROW 2PM EDT: Join Jeremy Ney, author of American Inequality, and Shafeka Hashash, Director of Cash Initiatives at the Economic Security Project, over on our Substack for a live conversation about what it takes to build effective, direct cash-giving programs.

40 out of 50 states don't have enough shelter beds. If you're evicted tomorrow, you'll likely be turned away from shelters in 4 out of 5 states. Let that sink in.

I’ll be Live with @economicsecurityproject.org on Thursday (8/21) at 2pm ET talking about direct cash giving and what we know about the benefits (and challenges) of cash aid open.substack.com/live-stream/...

This is atrocious: NYC added just 956 private sector jobs in the first 6 months of the year, or roughly 5 people getting hired per day. That is the slowest pace since 2003 (excluding recessions). If you weren’t one of those lucky 5 on a given day, you were screwed. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/13/n...

We’ve hit 20,000! We’re one of Substack’s Best-Sellers and the #1 newsletter on US inequality and opportunity. Proud of all the hard work 🎉🍾 americaninequality.substack.com