3 ms·

For all of the talk about California’s immense wealth, most people are unaware that the state also has a higher rate of people in poverty than any other state w

For all of the talk about California’s immense wealth, most people are unaware that the state also has a higher rate of people in poverty than any other state when you correct for local cost of living and taxes. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territories_by_poverty_rate https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_terr... (See the column of the Census’ supplemental poverty measure.)

ajmurmann 8y ago
I'd love to see some numbers that take the origins of the homeless people into account. Did these people become homeless in California or did they become homeless elsewhere and then migrated to California? The mild weather and liberal attitude make CA a lot more attractive to the homeless than many other states.
- laurencerowe 8y ago
  For San Francisco, 71% had housing in the city before becoming homeless, 19% were from CA and only 10% from the rest of the USA. http://www.socketsite.com/archives/2016/02/san-franciscos-homeless-crisis-is-homegrown.html http://www.socketsite.com/archives/2016/02/san-franciscos-ho... The homeless rate here is similar to that in New York, but New York has a right to shelter so far fewer sleep on the streets than in San Francisco. It's less that the mild weather makes CA more attractive, more that it lets CA governments ignore the problem.
  - abvdasker 8y ago
    I had not heard these statistics before but they are very informative. I live in New York but visit SF often for my job. Every time I visit I am shocked all over again at the extent of the homelessness and poverty right next to obscene levels of wealth from tech. I always assumed New York just had fewer homeless but these statistics prove that the CA government has instead completely and utterly failed to support this population of people. In general, San Francisco seems like a terrible place to live.
- jka 8y ago
  OP was discussing poverty rather than homelessness; having cycled through a number of bay area cities which have a much less favorable economic situation than downtown SF/Oakland/Berkeley/San Jose/MTV/Palo Alto/etc... yes, there are serious problems with poverty in California. Most commentors here have some kind of conceptual idea about what poverty is like, or see West Oakland town houses sometimes from BART, or have ideas shaped by homelessness in SF and occasional conversations with colleagues and friends - the reality is that there's a whole ton more people out there living on much less, and it's a different world entirely, especially when you see it in person. In some ways it's probably less dangerous than people would imagine, but it's also shocking and nearly third world.
bhl 8y ago
With great wealth comes great inequality: for the most part, California condenses all the extreme parts of the U.S. economy into one state. Unless California invests more in its public utilities (or anything that allows for an even playing field), economic inequality in a high economic region should be expected.
- collyw 8y ago
  > With great wealth comes great inequality What do you class as great wealth? Scandinavian countries seem to do OK.
  - bhl 8y ago
    I would say that statement holds true for most countries. The Nordic model [1] is an exception, and why I said California should invest more in its public welfare. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nordic_model https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nordic_model

ajmurmann 8y ago

I'd love to see some numbers that take the origins of the homeless people into account. Did these people become homeless in California or did they become homeless elsewhere and then migrated to California? The mild weather and liberal attitude make CA a lot more attractive to the homeless than many other states.

laurencerowe 8y ago
For San Francisco, 71% had housing in the city before becoming homeless, 19% were from CA and only 10% from the rest of the USA. http://www.socketsite.com/archives/2016/02/san-franciscos-homeless-crisis-is-homegrown.html http://www.socketsite.com/archives/2016/02/san-franciscos-ho... The homeless rate here is similar to that in New York, but New York has a right to shelter so far fewer sleep on the streets than in San Francisco. It's less that the mild weather makes CA more attractive, more that it lets CA governments ignore the problem.
- abvdasker 8y ago
  I had not heard these statistics before but they are very informative. I live in New York but visit SF often for my job. Every time I visit I am shocked all over again at the extent of the homelessness and poverty right next to obscene levels of wealth from tech. I always assumed New York just had fewer homeless but these statistics prove that the CA government has instead completely and utterly failed to support this population of people. In general, San Francisco seems like a terrible place to live.
jka 8y ago
OP was discussing poverty rather than homelessness; having cycled through a number of bay area cities which have a much less favorable economic situation than downtown SF/Oakland/Berkeley/San Jose/MTV/Palo Alto/etc... yes, there are serious problems with poverty in California. Most commentors here have some kind of conceptual idea about what poverty is like, or see West Oakland town houses sometimes from BART, or have ideas shaped by homelessness in SF and occasional conversations with colleagues and friends - the reality is that there's a whole ton more people out there living on much less, and it's a different world entirely, especially when you see it in person. In some ways it's probably less dangerous than people would imagine, but it's also shocking and nearly third world.

bhl 8y ago

With great wealth comes great inequality: for the most part, California condenses all the extreme parts of the U.S. economy into one state. Unless California invests more in its public utilities (or anything that allows for an even playing field), economic inequality in a high economic region should be expected.

collyw 8y ago
> With great wealth comes great inequality What do you class as great wealth? Scandinavian countries seem to do OK.
- bhl 8y ago
  I would say that statement holds true for most countries. The Nordic model [1] is an exception, and why I said California should invest more in its public welfare. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nordic_model https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nordic_model