The Grapes of Wrath

[Berzerker]

http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-jackson-california-poverty-20180114-story.html

Guess which state has the highest poverty rate in the country? Not Mississippi, New Mexico, or West Virginia, but California, where nearly one out of five residents is poor. That’s according to the Census Bureau’s Supplemental Poverty Measure, which factors in the cost of housing, food, utilities and clothing, and which includes noncash government assistance as a form of income.

What happened to California? I grew up out there... Is it because there are so many seasonal/migrant workers in the food industry? The article blames liberal policies and thats probably got something to do with it, but it also seems to me states that produce food are more dependent on unskilled labor.

 

[schlaufuchs]

It's because cost of living is absurdly high in the most densely populated parts of the state.

 

[Berzerker]

true, I cant imagine what it costs to live in San Francisco much less do it on low wages

 

[Zkribbler]

Here's a fun link to the Census Bureau
https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2017/demo/p60-259.html

About 2/3 of the way down the page, tables begin.
The third group of tables is poverty; the next to the last link is "by states."
It shows that in 2015-2016, California's poverty rate was 13.9%,
just slightly higher than the US's 13.1% average.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Wikipedia ranks Californian 35th.
However it notes that Calif. is last when applying the Supplement Poverty Measure:

Supplemental Poverty Measure takes into account differences in cost of living between states (i.e. housing costs appreciably higher/lower than the national average) as well as taxes and the value of government assistance programs.

 

[Broken_Erika]

It's obviously Obama's fault. There was never any poverty or racism in US history until Obama came along! He even wiped out the rainbow sunset and chocolate rivers AND killed all the dinosaurs and unicorns with his communist leprechaun army!!!!

 

[Ryika]

It's obviously Obama's fault. There was never any poverty or racism in US history until Obama came along! He even wiped out the rainbow sunset and chocolate rivers AND killed all the dinosaurs and unicorns with his communist leprechaun army!!!!

And I heard he also smoked weed in the oval office.

 

[onejayhawk]

I saw that article. The obvious questions were covered, such as where the line was drawn and whether public aid was included. The bottom line is that costs outstripped aid, rendering a quarter of the state impoverished.

It's obviously Obama's fault.

That's your answer to everything. Sometimes you happen to be right, but in this case it was obviously the Governator.

And I heard he also smoked weed in the oval office.

Mayber we can convince Trump to do the same. He might chill.

J