Doesn't tying income class to moving targets within those classes defeat the point of measuring them? (feddit.org)

submitted 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) by ki4jgt@feddit.org to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

8 comments fedilink hide all child comments

The US Census Bureau defines lower class as the lowest 20% of incomes.

Pew defines it as the lowest 2/3 of the median.

If the highest income is $100, 20% is $20.

At 2/3 the median, if the median is $30, lower-class is $20.

Is there a reason they're tying income classes to people within those classes, and not what it costs to survive within the economy?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[-] ALoafOfBread@lemmy.ml 2 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

You can track things relating to those groups, though. Like if we consider the 20th percentile and below to be the very poorest in society, no matter how rich or poor society happens to be on average or what the wealth distribution is like - we can see how the very poorest fare in terms of education, health outcomes, etc over time.

Or like, looking at the median value - sure the amount of money the median-income worker has will change, but the median-income worker could afford a standard of living much closer to someone at the 90th percentile in 1960 than today's median-income worker can.

Looking at things like this allows you to draw different comparisons.

this post was submitted on 23 Sep 2026

9 points (90.9% liked)

Asklemmy

55654 readers

366 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy 🔍

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

Open-ended question
Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

Lemmyverse: community search
sub.rehab: maps old subreddits to fediverse options, marks official as such
!lemmy411@lemmy.ca: a community for finding communities

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de~

founded 7 years ago

MODERATORS