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$125K/year may be "rich" in Kansas, but is lower middle class in California. Try breaking the data out on a state-by-state level and the pattern becomes blindi
by evgen 16y ago
$125K/year may be "rich" in Kansas, but is lower middle class in California. Try breaking the data out on a state-by-state level and the pattern becomes blindingly obvious: those at the top of the per-state income scale vote Republican, regardless of which state they are in. (And the reason Dems picked up all those Wall St. contributions was because Wall St. is not stupid and knew which way the wind was blowing; bankers knew it was better to try to buy a bit of leniency than annoy the people who would be writing the new financial regulations)
The authors of the book Red State, Blue State have all the data you need to answer this question, and they helpfully blog various tidbits and state breakdowns on various issues like this.
- com 16y agoIt is so not lower middle class in California. While the couple earning that in the Bay Area may be doing it hard, the difference between that and the lifestyle of the poor is immense. There is a fairly thick layer (my bet is at least 35% of the population) of middle class people between your Californians on $125k and hopelessly hardscrabble folk on the breadline. Edit: it looks like it might be a little higher percentage, actually, if we extrapolate from old data from the 2000 census http://ccsre.stanford.edu/reports/report_13.pdf http://ccsre.stanford.edu/reports/report_13.pdf