Letting The Gini Out of the Bottle

 

The front page headline of the March 2, 2012 edition of Parker Chronicle proclaimed the fact that Douglas County has one of the highest median incomes in the United States. It’s true that both median and mean income is well and away above average but that is only part of the story. Per capita and other indexes paint a more complex picture. Per capita income is a measure of what everyone would receive if all income were divided equally among everyone in the county. The disparity between the much higher median income and much lower per capita income indicate a particularly uneven distribution of wealth in Douglas County. For example, in Arapahoe County median minus per capita income was about $9,000. In Douglas County the difference was in the ballpark of $54,000. The Gini Index is a tool specifically designed to measure income inequality in communities.

Another column in the same issue of the paper illustrates why we cannot afford to simply stuff the Gini back in the bottle. This piece was a mention of the Empty Bowl fundraiser for the Women’s Crisis Center. It would be difficult to look at one of those empty bowls without thinking of Donna Royer, a Parker woman who was gunned down on Main Street by her spouse. It’s entirely possible that lady was aware of all the domestic violence resources and help available to her and she chose not to take advantage of them. It’s equally possible she was not. Research done by the Omni Institute in 2009 found that many Douglas families did not know how to find help when they needed it or services were not in place when they were needed. Because of the perception that Douglas County folk are economically self-sufficient and doing fine, even the wealthiest families had trouble finding help for challenges such as having a child with a disability, divorce, mental health issues, or substance abuse. The myth of self-sufficiency makes residents reluctant to ask for help, public bodies to mandate it, or private grants to fund it.

As we all know from folktales, genies are sly creatures who can wreak havoc on the unwary. Like those desert wraiths, the Gini can run amok in Douglas County unless we get it firmly by the tail.

 

Article Contributed By:

 

Tobey Stein

Oracles @ Insourced