4 ms·

“Upper class starts at $65k/yr” is peak Heritage Foundation.

by relaxing 5y ago

monocasa 5y ago
Jeeze, not just 65k, but 65k household as your neighborhood's median.
- YATA1 5y ago
  Because that is reality. $65k is where the richest quantile for neighborhood median household income starts, by census tract [0]. The linked report was compiled by Dr. Shanea Watkins, a policy analyst specializing in empirical studies. Unless you have sources that claim otherwise, my original claim stands. [0] http://s3.amazonaws.com/thf_media/2008/pdf/cda08-05.pdf http://s3.amazonaws.com/thf_media/2008/pdf/cda08-05.pdf
  - monocasa 5y ago
    Or that just means that upper class doesn't start at the boundary of the top quantile. I'm sorry but no stretch of the imagination has upper class as a couple making 33k/yr each. That's absolutely absurd. That's $16.50 an hour with no overtime. Looking at it, upper class typically is the top one or two percent of the population. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_upper_class https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_upper_class
    - YATA1 5y ago
      The OP specifically mentioned "upper classes". It is a fact that the lower classes (lowest quantile) are underrepresented, and the higher classes (highest quantile) are overrepresented [0]. [0] http://s3.amazonaws.com/thf_media/2008/pdf/cda08-05.pdf http://s3.amazonaws.com/thf_media/2008/pdf/cda08-05.pdf
    - analognoise 5y ago
      That's not absurd - if you define "upper quartile" to be so broad, you get the conclusion you want - that they're "overrepresented".
YATA1 5y ago
> “Upper class starts at $65k/yr” is peak Heritage Foundation. Yes, peak facts that don't care about your feelings. $65k is where the richest quantile for neighborhood median household income starts, by census tract [0]. The linked report was compiled by Dr. Shanea Watkins, a policy analyst specializing in empirical studies. Unless you have sources that claim otherwise, my original claim stands. [0] http://s3.amazonaws.com/thf_media/2008/pdf/cda08-05.pdf http://s3.amazonaws.com/thf_media/2008/pdf/cda08-05.pdf
- actuallyalys 5y ago
  There might be good reasons to use that breakdown, but I still think referring to people with a household income of $65K as "upper class" is misleading. There's also something a bit strange with this breakdown. The top 20 percent of households made more than $91,705 [0][1] in 2007. $65K appears to be the top 20 percent of census tracts. That doesn't seem right, though, because you wouldn't expect 20 percent of the population to come from 20 percent of the tracts, unless they're exactly the same size (which tracts are not), so maybe I made a mistake in interpretation. [0] https://www.visualizingeconomics.com/blog/2006/11/05/2005-us-income-distribution/ https://www.visualizingeconomics.com/blog/2006/11/05/2005-us... [1] https://www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/demo/income-poverty/cps-hinc/hinc-06.2007.html https://www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/demo/income-p...
- chrisseaton 5y ago
  But ‘class’ isn’t income quantiles.
  - YATA1 5y ago
    The OP specifically mentioned "upper classes". It is a fact that the lower classes (lowest quantile) are underrepresented, and the higher classes (highest quantile) are overrepresented [0]. [0] http://s3.amazonaws.com/thf_media/2008/pdf/cda08-05.pdf http://s3.amazonaws.com/thf_media/2008/pdf/cda08-05.pdf

“Upper class starts at $65k/yr” is peak Heritage Foundation.

monocasa 5y ago

Jeeze, not just 65k, but 65k household as your neighborhood's median.

YATA1 5y ago
Because that is reality. $65k is where the richest quantile for neighborhood median household income starts, by census tract [0]. The linked report was compiled by Dr. Shanea Watkins, a policy analyst specializing in empirical studies. Unless you have sources that claim otherwise, my original claim stands. [0] http://s3.amazonaws.com/thf_media/2008/pdf/cda08-05.pdf http://s3.amazonaws.com/thf_media/2008/pdf/cda08-05.pdf
- monocasa 5y ago
  Or that just means that upper class doesn't start at the boundary of the top quantile. I'm sorry but no stretch of the imagination has upper class as a couple making 33k/yr each. That's absolutely absurd. That's $16.50 an hour with no overtime. Looking at it, upper class typically is the top one or two percent of the population. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_upper_class https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_upper_class
  - YATA1 5y ago
    The OP specifically mentioned "upper classes". It is a fact that the lower classes (lowest quantile) are underrepresented, and the higher classes (highest quantile) are overrepresented [0]. [0] http://s3.amazonaws.com/thf_media/2008/pdf/cda08-05.pdf http://s3.amazonaws.com/thf_media/2008/pdf/cda08-05.pdf
  - analognoise 5y ago
    That's not absurd - if you define "upper quartile" to be so broad, you get the conclusion you want - that they're "overrepresented".

YATA1 5y ago

> “Upper class starts at $65k/yr” is peak Heritage Foundation. Yes, peak facts that don't care about your feelings. $65k is where the richest quantile for neighborhood median household income starts, by census tract [0]. The linked report was compiled by Dr. Shanea Watkins, a policy analyst specializing in empirical studies. Unless you have sources that claim otherwise, my original claim stands. [0] http://s3.amazonaws.com/thf_media/2008/pdf/cda08-05.pdf http://s3.amazonaws.com/thf_media/2008/pdf/cda08-05.pdf

actuallyalys 5y ago
There might be good reasons to use that breakdown, but I still think referring to people with a household income of $65K as "upper class" is misleading. There's also something a bit strange with this breakdown. The top 20 percent of households made more than $91,705 [0][1] in 2007. $65K appears to be the top 20 percent of census tracts. That doesn't seem right, though, because you wouldn't expect 20 percent of the population to come from 20 percent of the tracts, unless they're exactly the same size (which tracts are not), so maybe I made a mistake in interpretation. [0] https://www.visualizingeconomics.com/blog/2006/11/05/2005-us-income-distribution/ https://www.visualizingeconomics.com/blog/2006/11/05/2005-us... [1] https://www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/demo/income-poverty/cps-hinc/hinc-06.2007.html https://www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/demo/income-p...
chrisseaton 5y ago
But ‘class’ isn’t income quantiles.
- YATA1 5y ago
  The OP specifically mentioned "upper classes". It is a fact that the lower classes (lowest quantile) are underrepresented, and the higher classes (highest quantile) are overrepresented [0]. [0] http://s3.amazonaws.com/thf_media/2008/pdf/cda08-05.pdf http://s3.amazonaws.com/thf_media/2008/pdf/cda08-05.pdf