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posted by martyb on Sunday November 20 2016, @07:20PM   Printer-friendly
from the how-much-less-do-I-have-than-others dept.

Since social scientists and economists began measuring poverty, the definition has never strayed far from a discussion of income.

New research from Georgia Tech economist Shatakshee Dhongde shows there are multiple components of poverty that more accurately describes a household's economic condition. Dhongde looks at "deprivation" more than simply low income, and her work finds that almost 15 percent of Americans are deprived in multiple dimensions.

"This study approaches poverty in a new way," said Dhongde, who recently published "Multi-Dimensional Deprivation in the U.S." in the journal Social Indicators Research.

"We tried to identify what is missing in the literature on poverty, and measure deprivation in six dimensions: health, education, standard of living, security, social connections, and housing quality. When you look at deprivation in these dimensions, you have a better picture of what is really going on with households, especially in developed countries like the United States."


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  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 20 2016, @08:25PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 20 2016, @08:25PM (#430054)

    The Human Development Index (what they are really after) use to consider spending (i.e.- it matters not one whit who earns the money, but who spends the money) in their calculations with regards to income, but reworked the definitions around the time the Gender Development Index started coming into vogue (my inner conspiracy theorist thinks this is in part due to the HDI showing a huge gender discrepancy favoring women in western countries which contradicted the GDI), and difficulties in relating extreme wealth to extreme poverty (not to mention exchange rates, etc.). This is a part of the problem with using such a blunt instrument like income (the very wealthy have essentially no income and can live off of reserves) to describe poverty. At least they are factoring in other components.

    But there is a high degree of politicization with such metrics, in part due to either extreme not really being comparable by the same scale, and outliers that don't quite fit in the standard economic indicators (the county in my state with the most millionaires also has the worst grinding poverty and lowest educational attainment. How can this be?). As such, I really don't trust poverty indexes and look more towards assessing separate dimensions specific to the economics of the local area (which is something this "deprivation" study still doesn't account for).

    TL;DR- you can't compare to different economic areas by the same scale.

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  • (Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 20 2016, @09:08PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 20 2016, @09:08PM (#430083)

    (the very wealthy have essentially no income and can live off of reserves)

    Not necessary to be very wealthy. Just be White and be forced into mid-career retirement when the people elect The Black President and racism becomes popular. Literally eat your retirement savings and hope you can come out of retirement after eight years. I've met a few guys who lived this way during the era of The Black President. We'll see if anything changes under the President-Elect.

    • (Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Sunday November 20 2016, @10:02PM

      by Ethanol-fueled (2792) on Sunday November 20 2016, @10:02PM (#430131) Homepage

      Did you know that there are cities in America that aren't San Francisco or New York City? Cities where Whites are free to be White and openly support Donald Trump? Here in San Diego that anti-White shit doesn't fly, and if you even mention "safe spaces" or "CIS" at work your ass is on the fast-track out the door.

      Trans people are actually pretty tolerated here, even in the military industrial complex...as long as you dress conservatively for your gender at work and don't have blue hair and facial piercings or look like Buffalo Bill from Silence of the Lambs you can have your own dedicated restrooms and all that. And if you are willing to work in the shipyards, then you can be a big burly dude with a chisel-jaw and 3 day-old stubble in makeup and a wig, as long as you're wearing pants for safety reasons. Yep, big ol' gay dudes, you feel so safe in their arms, even though you're totally not gay, you're glad you have them on your side. They understand what it is like to be part of a brotherhood, showing a kind of loyalty which is a concept alien to those conniving unscrupulous women.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 20 2016, @10:41PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 20 2016, @10:41PM (#430167)

        Whites are free to be White and openly support Donald Trump

        fired from my job at the local detachment of Boston Dynamics for calling Eric Schmidt a "Jew fag" at a company picnic, I figured the best way to spend a Friday would be to go to the local Trump rally

        • (Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Sunday November 20 2016, @10:53PM

          by Ethanol-fueled (2792) on Sunday November 20 2016, @10:53PM (#430177) Homepage

          I was re-hired. Kind of a long story, but I hired a good Jewish lawyer and he pleaded the case that I acted under duress from a hostile environment due to anti-White male bias. Like a good judo practitioner he leveraged the company's momentum against itself and I won the case. Unfortunately, there were also other civil, contractual obligations that needed to be worked out in parallel -- my work on the Gay Jewish Robots, HAL Goldberg and Tyrone Silverstein was unfinished and they had no others who knew those systems as well as I did.

          Sparing you the long and complicated details, I accepted being re-hired at Boston Dynamics to finish work on my projects in exchange for legal fees rather than the full settlement I was awarded. Although it cost me in the short-term, the deal is more lucrative for me in the long term. There is hostility at work but I get a few pats on the back from those sympathetic on a regular basis, and they are under orders not to threaten my employment due to contractual obligations.

          • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 20 2016, @11:04PM

            by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 20 2016, @11:04PM (#430185)

            a hostile environment due to anti-White male bias

            where Whites are free to be White and openly support Donald Trump

            That's the idea, argue both sides of the issue, and you'll have the issue surrounded.

            • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 21 2016, @02:58AM

              by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 21 2016, @02:58AM (#430286)

              Yep, big ol' gay dudes, you feel so safe in their arms, even though you're totally not gay, you're glad you have them on your side. They understand what it is like to be part of a brotherhood, showing a kind of loyalty which is a concept alien to those conniving unscrupulous women.

              This is the part that has me concerned. Nativist? Check! Bigot? Check! Anti-semite? Check. Trump supporter? Check! So deep in the closet cannot find his own goats.ex with both hands? Check!