from Hacker News

California does not have the highest poverty rate in the USA

by aston on 1/15/18, 10:26 PM with 19 comments

  • by bmmayer1 on 1/15/18, 11:54 PM

    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.

  • by tomc1985 on 1/15/18, 11:34 PM

    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"

  • by curtis on 1/16/18, 1:02 AM

    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.

  • by MiscIdeaMaker99 on 1/16/18, 12:01 AM

    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.

  • by annon23 on 1/15/18, 11:22 PM

    Build more houses

  • by gonewest on 1/16/18, 3:35 AM

    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?