Wealth

NEW YORK - The next wave of union protesters isn't blue collar. It's lawyers, paralegals, secretaries, helicopter pilots, judges, insurance agents and podiatrists. These white-collar workers are not exactly the picture of the labor movement, but they are becoming a more essential part of it as they turn to unions for help in a tough economy as bosses try to squeeze out more profits. "Employers have been downsizing, asking employees to take on larger roles, making them work more hours," said Nicole Korkolis, spokeswoman for the Office and Professional Employees International Union.

A drive along Angus Street in hilly Silver Lake requires navigating a gantlet of buckled concrete slabs and dirt-filled cracks. But on South Seabluff Drive in Playa Vista the ride is smooth, the pavement is black and you can smell the fresh asphalt. Despite the city's best efforts to keep up with the constant flood of road repairs, Los Angeles is a city divided - by its potholes, cracks and ruts. Interactive map: See your street's grade A Times analysis of street inspection data found wide disparities in road quality among the city's 114 neighborhoods.

WASHINGTON - The typical American family lost nearly 40% of its wealth from 2007 to 2010 as the Great Recession reduced household net worth to a level not seen since the early 1990s. The net worth of the median U.S. family - one with an equal number of families richer and poorer - fell to $77,300 in 2010 from $126,400 three years earlier, after adjusting for inflation, the Federal Reserve said in a new report Monday. The drop, much steeper than previous Fed quarterly reports have suggested, underscores the severity of the 2007-09 recession that decimated the housing market and resulted in massive layoffs that slashed people's incomes.

Re "A split of haves and have mores," April 28 The Laguna Beach Unified School District has an inequitable funding problem similar to the one faced by the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District, which seeks to distribute money donated by wealthier parents to less well-off campuses. Enthusiastic parents in my district collect millions for our already incredibly wealthy school district. I routinely propose sharing our funds with our much less wealthy neighbors in Santa Ana, but this suggestion is met with either blank stares or nervous laughter.

Driving around Los Angeles, particularly around the UCLA campus, it's hard not to notice the hospitals and research centers that bear their name. The father-and-son team of Leslie and Louis Gonda made a fortune from the sale of their aircraft leasing business, and they weren't shy about spreading their wealth around, giving to charities and medical research throughout the city. "For years, they've given away a great deal of money," said Bob Safai of Madison Partners, a Los Angeles commercial real estate firm.

At his farewell dinner, Sen. George Mitchell noted that holding public office doesn't guarantee wealth. In today's political climate it seems the question should be: Does wealth guarantee holding public office? JOAN MILKE FLORES San Pedro

We hear a great deal these days about the top 1% and the bottom 99% in the American economic pyramid. But we also need to consider the 11%. From 1776 to the present, the bottom 60% of the American population, as USC historian Carole Shammas has documented, has never had more than 11% of the country's wealth. We may embrace the American dream of broad prosperity and wealth equity, but we have never been close to achieving it. There has been an explosion of studies examining inequality in the United States recently.

Re "He can't escape the economic divide," Oct. 14 Why waste so many column inches on one presidential candidate's wealth? Mitt Romney has money. George Washington, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, James Madison, John F. Kennedy and several other U.S. presidents had money. Barack Obama has millions of dollars now. Would most of the people complaining about Romney's wealth choose to have poor parents over rich ones? Karen Karlitz Marina del Rey ALSO: Letters: Pakistan's profile in courage Letters: Hindsight in the Libya attack Letters: The Golden State's pricey gas

On this day 226 years ago — July 26, 1784 — Benjamin Franklin considered whether society was in need of a "remedy for luxury" in a letter to his trusted advisor, Benjamin Vaughn. In it, Franklin methodically argued against such a need. The current growing clamor for the regulation of wealth makes Franklin's thoughts on the matter relevant today. Consider President Obama's now infamous off-script muttering that "I do think at a certain point you've made enough money." Many have argued that this statement is emblematic of larger anti-wealth, anti-luxury tendencies in the administration's agenda.

Re "A split of haves and have mores," April 28 The Laguna Beach Unified School District has an inequitable funding problem similar to the one faced by the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District, which seeks to distribute money donated by wealthier parents to less well-off campuses. Enthusiastic parents in my district collect millions for our already incredibly wealthy school district. I routinely propose sharing our funds with our much less wealthy neighbors in Santa Ana, but this suggestion is met with either blank stares or nervous laughter.

At times, Andy Shih still finds himself overwhelmed by the groundswell of interest in autism apps he's seen in the three years since Apple Inc. released the first iPad. In his role as senior vice president for scientific affairs at Autism Speaks, a national advocacy organization based in New York, Shih helped organize a "hacking autism" event in San Francisco with cosponsor AT&T Inc. that drew 135 developers. It was the group's third event, following previous hackathons co-sponsored with Hewlett-Packard Co. and Microsoft Corp.

The gig: Christopher Thornberg is founding partner of Beacon Economics, a Los Angeles-based economics consulting firm. Since its founding in 2007, Beacon has provided economic analysis and forecasting for cities, counties and corporate clients. He also worked as chief economic advisor to the state Controller's Office from 2008 to 2012. While he was at the UCLA Anderson Forecast, he began sounding the alarm about an impending housing market crash - and the ensuing recession.

WASHINGTON - The richest 7% of American families saw their average wealth soar 28% from 2009 to 2011, while the remaining households lost 4% of their net worth over the same period, according to a new report. The analysis of Census Bureau data by the Pew Research Center draws on the most recent statistics on wealth. The findings throw into stark relief the dramatically uneven nature of the recovery. The economy officially emerged from recession in mid-2009, and since then, affluent families have benefited handsomely from recovering stock prices and surging gains in bonds.

Re “ Seniors vs. kids claim is a sham ,” Business, Feb. 27 As a senior, I am concerned about my Social Security and Medicare benefits. However, I am also concerned about the future prosperity of my children and grandchildren. Your writer correctly points out that the chatter about “generational theft” in the debate over national fiscal policy is an intentional distraction. This false proposition that we must choose between spending on seniors' benefits or spending on our children's futures diverts attention from the national economic policies of the last 30 years, which have damaged the economic security of most Americans.

WASHINGTON - One of the key players in a special Democratic congressional primary Tuesday in Chicago comes from New York. That city's mayor, Michael R. Bloomberg, is using his vast wealth to challenge a candidate running on a gun rights platform in the first election since the school shooting in Newtown, Conn. - a move that underscores his crusade to serve as a political counterweight to the National Rifle Assn. The NRA has chosen not to counter Bloomberg's ads attacking its preferred candidate, former Rep. Debbie Halvorson, and liberal Chicago districts are an imperfect test case.

The NBA has revamped its NBA.com website with a wealth of statistical data. Powered by software from tech company SAP, the site now makes available every box score dating back to the inaugural 1946-47 season (including Kobe Bryant's 81-point game ). Bryant's career night can also be visualized as a shot chart .  The Lakers All-Star shot 12 for 15 at the basket but hit only one of four jumpers near the free throw line. "NBA.com/Stats provides our fans and media with the definitive tool for accessing our entire up-to-the-minute history of official NBA statistical information,” said NBA Deputy Commissioner Adam Silver.

Jim Hightower (Commentary, Sept. 5) is the first commentator I have read that seems to understand the seriousness of the concentration of wealth on our economy. Simply put, the problem is this: Money that goes to the rich is money that does not go to the workers. The workers are the consumers and after 12 years of making the rich richer and the workers poorer, the poor no longer have the money to buy what is produced. Supply-side economics has had its chance and failed. Now demand-side economics must be given a chance.

It seems curious that when private lawyers are earning as much as $350 per hour from the state that an hourly charge of $150 from a physician is often arbitrarily considered above the "usual and customary" by the health insurers, private or governmental. Since our education system demands far more hours to qualify one to practice medicine than law, and most of the legal issues end up merely as financial bickerings, is our society saying that wealth is more vital than health? JOHN T. CHIU, MD Corona del Mar

This month marks the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 16th Amendment, which gave Congress the power to tax American incomes. Unlike the contentious congressional drama in passing the American Taxpayer Relief Act to avert going over the "fiscal cliff," the 16th Amendment was accorded little emotion when it received a thumbs-up from both houses in 1909. That was because most congressmen backed the amendment for the wrong reason - they firmly believed that no such taxing proposal would ever be ratified by the requisite three-fourths of the states.

Morgan Stanley 's big push into wealth management seems to be paying off. The New York investment bank, which has been cutting costs as it has struggled to boost earnings, returned to profitability in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley reported $507 million in profit, compared to a loss of $250 million the same period in 2011. Profits from its wealth management and institutional securities divisions surged. Morgan Stanley's profit beat Wall Street estimates, and its stock surged in pre-market trading on Wall Street.