<story><title>California does not have the highest poverty rate in the USA</title><url>http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2018/01/california-is-doing-fine-thank-you-very-much/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>bmmayer1</author><text>This article boils down to one point: that the basis of the LA Times article&amp;#x27;s claim is California&amp;#x27;s sky-high real estate prices. If it wasn&amp;#x27;t including house prices, poor Californians would be doing &amp;#x27;just fine.&amp;#x27; That&amp;#x27;s like saying a laptop works perfectly fine if you ignore the fact the screen is busted.&lt;p&gt;Why shouldn&amp;#x27;t housing prices be looked at when determining how poor a population is? Obviously it&amp;#x27;s a significant component of cost of living, which directly impacts how much purchasing power individuals and families have.</text></comment>
<story><title>California does not have the highest poverty rate in the USA</title><url>http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2018/01/california-is-doing-fine-thank-you-very-much/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>tomc1985</author><text>As a Californian I don&amp;#x27;t agree with the sentiment of this analysis. Sure, certain segments of the population here are doing well -- particularly, the well-off and those from out-of-state -- but if you were born and raised an average life here any time in the past 35 years, particularly on the coast, then your life is particularly tough in some areas: $1500 rents for a 1BR apartment, super-low wages, apathetic middle class, increasing traffic, now we have a homeless problem....&lt;p&gt;More succinctly I disagree with the authors&amp;#x27; assertion that CA is doing fine &amp;quot;if you take out housing prices&amp;quot;</text></comment>