The United Nations puts out a report on the state of human development, which focuses on the standard of living over the numeric metrics of the economy.  Well, the American Human Development, a Project of the Social Science Research Council, has done a similar thing for our own country.  And they have also done one on the state of California and come up with a few interesting statistics:

* Asian American women in California can expect to live up to 88.6 years, over 18 years longer than African American men.

* A gap of $58,000 in median personal earnings separate the top earners in the Santa Clara-Cupertino, Saratoga, Los Gatos area (about $73,000) from the lowest earners in the LA-East Adams-Exposition Park area (about $15,000)-a gap double the median personal earnings for the country as a whole.

* Just 100 of California’s nearly 2,500 high schools account for nearly half of the state’s dropouts.

* California’s Latina women earn the least, at $18,000-earnings on par with those of the typical American worker in 1960, half a century ago.

In other words, the income and economic disparity of our state continues to grow.  And despite that, we are more hesitant to do anything from the government side than ever before. We should be providing more assistance, not slashing into state spending, but, as the poem below says, pettiness takes priority over all else these days.

Here is the report: