Red State vs. Blue State: The Real Data [CBD]

Here's an interesting article from The Federalist about the skewing of poverty measures. Most of us around these parts laugh at government data, but this is a nice little debunking of the myth that Red states are poorer.....America's Future: California or Texas

The familiar official measure is more than 50 years old, and is showing its age. It has two huge shortcomings: it considers the cost of living to be the same in the 48 contiguous states (a patently ridiculous proposition when considering that the average rent in San Francisco in the first quarter of 2015 was $3,458 vs. $867 in Houston), and it doesn't account for in-kind benefits, such as Section Eight housing subsidies and Electronic Benefit Transfer cards (food stamps).

Thus, the federal governmen's main poverty gauge undercounts material poverty levels in high-cost states such as California, New York, and Hawaii, while over-counting true poverty in much of the low-cost Midwest and South.

As Ace says, "read the whole thing."

posted by Open Blogger at 02:01 PM

| Access Comments