California does not have the highest poverty rate in the USA

http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2018/01/california-is-doing-fine-thank-you-very-much/

by aston • 9 years ago

149 19 9 years ago

annon23• 9 years ago

Build more houses

tomc19853• 9 years ago

As a Californian I don't agree with the sentiment of this analysis. Sure, certain segments of the population here are doing well -- particularly, the well-off and those from out-of-state -- but if you were born and raised an average life here any time in the past 35 years, particularly on the coast, then your life is particularly tough in some areas: $1500 rents for a 1BR apartment, super-low wages, apathetic middle class, increasing traffic, now we have a homeless problem....

More succinctly I disagree with the authors' assertion that CA is doing fine "if you take out housing prices"

labster3• 9 years ago

As a Californian from the coast I feel your pain, but seriously compare this state to opioid country and we're doing great. Most of the people I knew from high school have had to leave because they can't afford it here now. But these are signs of a good economy and low poverty.

We are doing fine if you take out housing prices, and we are doing not great if you include them. Which is why everyone throughout the state is talking about the housing crisis. Unless you have some brilliant ideas like draining the SF Bay[0], housing is hard to do while simultaneously worrying about the environment.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reber_Plan

AnimalMuppet• 9 years ago

compare this state to opioid country...

That was a bit gratuitous.

... and we're doing great.

OK...

Most of the people I knew from high school have had to leave because they can't afford it here now.

So most of the people you went to high school with have been forced to leave (for "opioid country"?) - why? Because they'd be poor otherwise? Maybe even homeless? That's a bit odd for a place that's "doing great".

But these are signs of a good economy...

These are signs of an economy with high cost of living, lots of high-paying jobs, and not much place in it for those who can't get one of those high-paying jobs.

... and low poverty.

"Most of the poor people leaving" is not normally what I think of when I hear "low poverty".

I mean, yes, if California weren't creating all these high-paying jobs, there wouldn't be the demand, and so housing would be affordable. That's all true. And yet, I think on your own evidence you're painting a happier face on the situation than it deserves.

colechristensen2• 9 years ago

My impression is that using statistics to say CA has the highest poverty rate is just a good use of numbers to get attention for a headline. I highly doubt if you carefully considered the philosophy of what it is to be poor and used that to come up with scientific methods to measure it, you wouldn't find CA at the bottom. If someone thinks it is, they probably don't have a very good view of the rest of the country. (and really, I don't think it's very helpful to rank states. economies, regions, and populations within a state and how they're doing is an actually useful metric, 'poorest state' is too far disconnected from solutions)

And if we're talking about solutions, the top point should be disabusing people of the thought that the world owes them the right to keep their standard of living while staying in the same place despite economic climate changes. All of my ancestors moved to America and around America rich and poor, were driven largely with economic motivations. I would think that most people that ended up in America (and especially California) ended up there in search of opportunity. Many of CA's economic problems can be largely solved by a population from the top to the bottom more willing to take advantage of the competition for talent, labor, and cost of living from around the country. The artificial imbalance of people and companies that just don't want to leave is causing the absurdly high prices of things near the coast.

tomc19853• 9 years ago

I disagree... everyone should have special rights to their birthplace.

Not supporting those already results in the exactly the kind of gentrification that people are complaining about. CA is desirable land, the people that most support it (aka homegrown Californians still in place) should be the ones living there. Let the incoming masses pay a toll to provide for the people of the state they wish to live in.

Are you guests, or conquerors?

bmmayer12• 9 years ago

This article boils down to one point: that the basis of the LA Times article's claim is California's sky-high real estate prices. If it wasn't including house prices, poor Californians would be doing 'just fine.' That's like saying a laptop works perfectly fine if you ignore the fact the screen is busted.

Why shouldn't housing prices be looked at when determining how poor a population is? Obviously it's a significant component of cost of living, which directly impacts how much purchasing power individuals and families have.

labster3• 9 years ago

Imagine you're a one of Apple's (very stable) geniuses. Would you rather hear someone say "My computer doesn't work, fix it" or "I can't use my computer because the screen is busted." Yes, high housing prices are a component of poverty in California, but if you make poverty the story, you're burying the lede. The real story is housing housing housing, and that the housing crisis is creating more poverty.

digitalzombie• 9 years ago

That's your interpretation of the article. I don't believe that's how the article was written.

Author acknowledge the high housing cost but states that the metric that was used only account for a few things and it ignore other metrics which can skew it towards a certain argument.

Author also stated that the other person lied about how large state employment for California is. Author actually normalize/standardize it per capital instead of a having stating this is a large number.

You and the article can argue whatever yall want but it's just an opinion until yall do factor analysis or some sort of algorithm to figure out what's the right combination of metric is.

mc32• 9 years ago

This back and forth of complainers and defenders reminds me of old time raps --where someone came out with a rap and then someone would have to come back with an answer rap.

I bet if the state were controlled by different parties, Mother Jones and LA Times would have a different takes. This is politics at work.

MiscIdeaMaker99• 9 years ago

One of the best things I ever learned in school was from my German teacher in junior high school. I have no idea what we were talking about, but she said, "You can prove anything with statistics." I'm 41 years old and that has stuck with me all of these years.

bmmayer12• 9 years ago

Ronald Coase: "If you torture the data long enough, it will confess."

curtis• 9 years ago

The housing in California is probably most expensive in the Bay Area. On the other hand, poverty is probably disproportionately concentrated in the Central Valley, where I expect housing is very cheap compared to the Bay Area. If you just look at average housing prices and average income levels, I think you may get a distorted view of the actual cost of living.

gonewest• 9 years ago

Take a look at the recent affordable housing legislation passed in the state assembly and signed by the governor. Can you guess who opposes these measures?

California does not have the highest poverty rate in the USA

Related Stories