Category: Data

I use eight categories of people to break down the poverty data. They are defined as follows: Children — Ages 0-17. Elderly — Ages 65+. Disabled — Either 1) had one of the serious disabilities the Census tracks (PRDISFLG = 1), 2) was out of the labor force for the entire year because of an… Continue reading Technical details for my analysis of 2014 poverty data

Previously I wrote the smashing hit “Here is exactly how the Census poverty calculation is derived.” It explains in great detail how the Official Poverty Metric (OPM) works. Here, I do the same thing for the Supplemental Poverty Metric (SPM). Units All poverty metrics require some way of drawing lines around sets of people and… Continue reading Here is exactly how the Census supplemental poverty calculation is derived

This graph purports to show an increase in regulation activity in the United States: The Federal Register is the place where administrative agencies put notices of proposed rulemaking (NPR). The assumption underlying the graph is that more pages in the Federal Register means that there are more proposed rules and therefore more regulatory activity. But… Continue reading Dumb Graph Shows Nothing

Courtesy of Zach Beauchamp, I found my way to this really badly done piece from Ramesh Ponnuru. Here is the part Beauchamp quoted approvingly: A bigger flaw with the argument comes with Bartels’s second piece of evidence. He cites scholars at Columbia University who have concluded that Social Security, the earned income tax credit and… Continue reading One Thing A Conservative Wrote This Week That Is Really Bad

I made this basic income calculator this weekend. I impulsively tweeted it out the other day, without explaining what it actually is. A basic income refers to a per capita grant of income to each individual. So a basic income of $1000 (within my calculator) means every single person receives the $1000, including kids. The… Continue reading My basic income calculator