JoshuaZ comments on A signaling theory of class x politics interaction - Less Wrong

53 Post author: Yvain 17 October 2011 06:49PM

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Comment author: JoshuaZ 18 October 2011 01:47:14AM 2 points [-]

Huh? That graph is measuring numbers and percentages of people who don't meet the poverty threshold. That's defined by an estimate that they don't have enough income to meet basic needs such as food and shelter.

Comment author: nazgulnarsil 18 October 2011 08:26:06AM 3 points [-]

the poverty threshold is a much worse metric than looking directly at various parameters for living standards.

Comment author: JoshuaZ 18 October 2011 12:28:02PM *  1 point [-]

Can you expand on this? The poverty threshold in the US is designed to incorporate parameters for living standards regarding food and other essentials. How would you do things differently? It does have some problems certainly, like not taking into account differing costs of living in different locations, but as a rough measure for this purpose it seems fine.

Comment author: nazgulnarsil 19 October 2011 07:46:10PM 1 point [-]

After further investigation I retract the "much worse" comment. It is a little more precise than I previously thought.