'American Inequality' is a data portal and newsletter aiming to help politicians and policymakers better understand inequalities in their communities. Author Jeremy Ney joins Cheddar Politics to discuss the driving forces that pushed him to create this project. 

Cheddar Politics

One Researcher Aims to Help Politicians Better Understand U.S. Income Inequality

and welcome back everyone to general politics of baker machado in new york income inequality, a nationwide problem that appears to only keep growing on our next guest has made it his mission to figure out the systemic factors that make the american dream inaccessible for many. So joining us now in studio is Jeremy nay, the author of the american inequality data project and the newsletter for that on substack as well, Jeremy. Such a pleasure to have you here. So what sort of the driving force in your mind that led you to put so much effort into this project? Yeah, thanks so much for having me here. So I feel that inequality is really tied up in many social factors. Right? It's more than just income. It's also deeply tied up in education and housing and health care and taxes and gender and race. And so a lot of this work is really trying to understand those interwoven forces of inequality because to only look at one really misses sort of that larger picture. And so far it really only focused on that single area failed to help make sure that folks have the health care, education or support that they really need. And so how are you doing that by and how and I'm glad you mentioned the all different factors because I think a lot of us only look at it from an income perspective here. So how do you sort of combine all of those factors, but also educating people about those factors at the same time. Yeah. So uh for a long time now I've run a bi weekly newsletter that really make sure to look across a lot of these inequality factors. And we're now launching um inequality data portal that make sure that we can really access all this information website for that is american inequality dot io really allowing both politicians, policymakers, businesses individuals, to see, you know, that kind of, that that cross cutting look, because if we want to start making a dent in inequality and turning the tide, folks can really go there to make sure that they're, you know, seeing these factors that may be Get left in the dark, like single parent homes or food deserts or actually segways perfectly. My next question, what is what inequality you think that it would shock most people that they don't think about, that, maybe we don't talk about as much? Yeah, so one of the biggest ones right now is life expectancy that I think really doesn't get, you know, enough attention. So right now the us is actually facing the greatest divide in life expectancy across regions in the last 40 years. So if you happen to be born in, you know, a certain part of south Dakota, You'll die at 67 on average. But being born in certain parts of Colorado, you'll die at 87 on average. So, you know, being born there for no fault of your own? And so these discrepancies really have these huge, you know, systemic factors. What is it about those places being from Colorado, and then for somebody from the south that forces them to to have a shorter life expectancy, is it food deserts? Is it the climate, is it the politics? What is it's really all of those things? So it's, you know, being having poor access to, you know, social services. So there's certain parts of, you know, South Dakota really, you know, are in more rural regions, maybe don't have the support that they need. It's health care, you know, being in those certain parts of, you know, colorado, there's much easier access as well, it's income levels. So being able to afford healthier foods, it's where you live, the air that you breathe, and so it's really tied up in a lot of those forces. It's it's not one single dimension. It's kind of this cross country dimension. And that's the goal of american inequality is to really show that. So if the goal from politicians is to better our lives. And let's just say, you live in a particular state where your life expectancy is much lower. Why aren't we seeing politicians, I don't know, change some of the policies to make life better for a lot of people. Yeah, so I think it's really hard in some ways to, you know, do this cross cutting, look and trying to implement policies that, you know, make sure that we're looking at, you know, health care and education and taxes all at once, but I think politicians, you know, sometimes are doing you no good work to to push that forward. I think about the earned income tax credit and the child tax credit is really great examples of policies that put cash in the hands of low income families, you know, families with Children who are in need and to make sure that they, you know, can really be combating, you know, getting that cash for their health care for their rent, you know, to make sure that they're, you know, sending their kids to good schools. Um, but it's it's challenging to be able to, you know, create a policy that that works. Why are like those in particular, those tend to be platforms that Democratic Party tends to to really prop up why are those things that seem to be pretty benign and innocuous, innocuous, so politically divisive then. Yeah, so I think it's in part because of just where were, you know, sending our our funds, you know, to in in some ways. And I think it's, you know, thinking about which parts of the, you know, socioeconomic ladder we are supporting, I think, you know, the child tax credit and the earned income tax credit were actually, you know, policies that were well championed by republicans for for many years. And I've now taken on this more, you know Democratic hell, but I think that we can do more to make sure that it's sort of like takes that bipartisan approach again because cash is king totally. And I also think transparency and data is king also and showing people a lot of the statistics, I think regardless of their political affiliation, I think really is a stark sort of reminder and visualization for people to see, jeremy needs such a pleasure to have you here, the author of the american inequality data project, and also that newsletter on Substack as well and experience. After the break, we're sitting down with Democratic Darling, Jason Kander. We're talking all about his new book, Don't Go anywhere.