3 ms·

If the cost of living in a place as people actually live is below what a federal poverty formula set in 1963 says it is, then the rate will overreport. If it is

by Kalium 6y ago

If the cost of living in a place as people actually live is below what a federal poverty formula set in 1963 says it is, then the rate will overreport. If it is above that line, the rate will underreport. In both cases, a number based around the social assumptions of 1963 is not a perfect way to measure what life is actually like for actual people more than fifty years later. Things like household composition and non-cash income affect lived reality too. I hope that answers your question! Personally, I found the report from the Census Bureau and BLS (as per my earlier comment) quite educational for exactly this sort of eminently reasonable concern. But your mileage may vary!

pmiller2 6y ago
You're really telling me there's someplace anyone can live a halfway reasonable life for $13K/year? MIT's living wage calculator tells me the lowest living wage in any state is in Kentucky, and that clocks in at around $22k for a single individual.
- Kalium 6y ago
  I'm telling you that you have before you a rare and wonderful opportunity to partake of highly informational resources provided to you. It is not often in life that questions are so readily answered by neatly presented, authoritative, and trustworthy reports. Do let me know if you have any trouble with the Census Bureau SPM report, I'm happy to do my best to help you read it. To put it another way, I think the question that you're getting stuck on is too simple to be very helpful and that better information might help you formulate better questions. I hope this makes sense to you, but I know my communications skills are quite far from perfect.
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throwaway0a5e 6y ago
>Things like household composition and non-cash income affect lived reality too. And these things vary, sometimes greatly, based on where you live. Barnstable County (where the Kennedys live and the Kochs have (had?) summer houses) for a long time (might still be) middle of the road, poor-ish (~35k median income 2010 census, current national average is 56k) on paper because the really rich claim primary residence elsewhere and the wealthy people who do claim residence are retired (retired engineering managers and whanot, these people aren't Murdoch rich) are mostly savvy enough to look poor on paper so they can get discounted services from the state and pass more of it on to their kids. Who does that leave? Well there's no white collar industry to speak of so it leaves the trademen who fix the plumbing in the Kennedy compound, the service industry and a few business owners. So the county winds up looking dirt poor on paper despite the fact that there's a ton of money sloshing around (and it shows when you look at how the tradesmen and small business owners live). This is an extreme example but you can see how more minor differences when applied across an entire county or state could pollute a comparison when you're trying to compare very precise things, like how well off a median plumber in Reno is vs the median plumber in Chicago.

by Kalium 6y ago

pmiller2 6y ago

You're really telling me there's someplace anyone can live a halfway reasonable life for $13K/year? MIT's living wage calculator tells me the lowest living wage in any state is in Kentucky, and that clocks in at around $22k for a single individual.

Kalium 6y ago
I'm telling you that you have before you a rare and wonderful opportunity to partake of highly informational resources provided to you. It is not often in life that questions are so readily answered by neatly presented, authoritative, and trustworthy reports. Do let me know if you have any trouble with the Census Bureau SPM report, I'm happy to do my best to help you read it. To put it another way, I think the question that you're getting stuck on is too simple to be very helpful and that better information might help you formulate better questions. I hope this makes sense to you, but I know my communications skills are quite far from perfect.
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throwaway0a5e 6y ago

>Things like household composition and non-cash income affect lived reality too. And these things vary, sometimes greatly, based on where you live. Barnstable County (where the Kennedys live and the Kochs have (had?) summer houses) for a long time (might still be) middle of the road, poor-ish (~35k median income 2010 census, current national average is 56k) on paper because the really rich claim primary residence elsewhere and the wealthy people who do claim residence are retired (retired engineering managers and whanot, these people aren't Murdoch rich) are mostly savvy enough to look poor on paper so they can get discounted services from the state and pass more of it on to their kids. Who does that leave? Well there's no white collar industry to speak of so it leaves the trademen who fix the plumbing in the Kennedy compound, the service industry and a few business owners. So the county winds up looking dirt poor on paper despite the fact that there's a ton of money sloshing around (and it shows when you look at how the tradesmen and small business owners live). This is an extreme example but you can see how more minor differences when applied across an entire county or state could pollute a comparison when you're trying to compare very precise things, like how well off a median plumber in Reno is vs the median plumber in Chicago.