Weather is fine in Fargo

September 27, 2013 10:27 AM

"On September 19th, the Census Bureau released the American Community Survey (ACS) estimates of poverty and income. Based on a much larger survey sample than the older Current Population Survey, the ACS affords a closer look at state, regional, and local income patterns (like health and education spending). It is not a pretty picture." --Neat Data visualizations of the survey info from Dissent Magazine.
posted by Potomac Avenue (8 comments total)

Looking at the visualizations makes me wonder what specifically happened in 1987—some key part of Reaganomics take effect? Taxes on the rich reduced, what?
posted by entropicamericana at 10:41 AM on September 27, 2013

Looking at the visualizations makes me wonder what specifically happened in 1987—some key part of Reaganomics take effect? Taxes on the rich reduced, what?

That's gotta be the height of the Savings & Loan crisis, no?
posted by IvoShandor at 10:44 AM on September 27, 2013

Ah, I think I found it. THANKS RONNIE.
posted by entropicamericana at 10:46 AM on September 27, 2013 [2 favorites]

I'd like to see that bar graph that showed the top 1 percent less the top .1% and the top .1% less the top .01%, because I'm kind of suspicious that, even at the very top, it's worse than it looks.
posted by Kid Charlemagne at 10:52 AM on September 27, 2013 [1 favorite]

The city graphs on The Atlantic link are a bit strange.. when I think of Detroit this is NOT what I picture... Looks like they've included a number of neighboring counties in the data.
posted by HuronBob at 11:25 AM on September 27, 2013

Weather is fine in Fargo

*looks out the window*

It's cloudy and a bit cool, and windy. They had been predicting rain, but it hasn't gotten here yet. It was nicer out yesterday.
posted by AzraelBrown at 12:30 PM on September 27, 2013

HuronBob: "The city graphs on The Atlantic link are a bit strange.. when I think of Detroit this is NOT what I picture... Looks like they've included a number of neighboring counties in the data."

They did. At the bottom of the graph it says that "[a]ll city data is representative of metropolitan statistical area." Population is given in big numbers for the MSA and inside the city limits of the actual, named city in smaller numbers beneath that. Checking Dallas verifies this for me; there is no way the City of Dallas has 6.7 million people in it but I can believe 1.25 million. As for Detroit, a couple of people I know who live in Detroit (city limits) say that most of the problems there are inside Detroit proper. The area around Detroit labeled as "not-actually-in-Detroit" is supposedly doing rather well.
posted by fireoyster at 5:15 PM on September 27, 2013

Yeah, the MSA is going to be your standard top-level comparison. You really shouldn't expect anything different -- the whole purpose of the various, uh, statistical areas is the compilation and comparison of statistical features with an eye toward allocating outlays. As to the "not actually in Detroit" aspect, consider that even if people leaving Detroit do not stop in the suburbs and end up elsewhere, the relative population of the city proper will decline as a percentage of the area and thus the MSA will be ever less representative of the experience of the city proper.
posted by dhartung at 11:41 PM on September 27, 2013