Changing ideologies and growing older...

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Ok, but how did they generate it? Exit poll results?

It's a test like the Political Compass test.

I think what he's asking is how they knew where every single voter stands on the political compass.

They know where everyone who took the test stands.

[Beet]

Ok, but how did they generate it? Exit poll results?

It's a test like the Political Compass test.

I think what he's asking is how they knew where every single voter stands on the political compass.

They know where everyone who took the test stands.

If it's just a total of all the people who took their test online, then it doesn't say very much about the whole country. I imagine those who would most likely be polarized economically are not likely to go online with an internet connection to take a test like that. Still interesting, but doesn't say anything conclusive.

[Citizen James]

Median household income is about 44k - that's all earners within a household (adults and older children combined)  About 1 in 4 households has an income over 75k - and I would speculate that most of those are two worker households.

Claiming someone has a one in four chance of getting such income is misleading though.  Of those indicators which are the result of chance, rather than hard work, what sort of family one is born into and their fiscal status is probably the strongest influence (and for everyone here that has already been determined).   Hard work is,of course, nearly indespensible for those who wish to be upwardly mobile, though it is  no guarenee of success.  The chances of succeeding through hard work are better than the lotto though.  If OTOH, you're born on third base like GW, Opebo, or so many others - don't go boasting about hitting a triple - all you did was win the birth lottery. (and in many cases got continually bailed out despite blowing it repeatedly).

The Gini index (distribution of household income) for the EU is a little flatter than the US, but hardly anywhere near socialistic (except perhaps in the furtile imaginations of the blindly ultranationalistic)

[angus]

narrower.  flatter implies less scatter, too, but this is gaussian distribution (exp^-x^2).  Yeah, I've looked that up before.  The US has a very wide distribution of incomes.  Republicans/Libertarians associate that with Freedom.  No doubt, this is what Amsterdammers mean when they say that the US has "too much freedom" 

I agree with your assessment.  I was born poor white trash, and stole, earned, or milked the government for everything I have.  Not that this makes anyone better than anyone else.  One cannot hate the rich just for being born rich, but it's important to remember that this is more like the lottery, if you're Hindu, or more like good investment strategy, if you're Mormon. 

As an aside, expect the gini indices of the US, the various states of the EU, and other OECD nations to increase over the next 20 years.  The rat race isn't pretty, but some rats will be be on that part of the gaussian with a negative first derivative and some will find themselves on that part of the curve with a positive first derivative.  (I expect I'll be the rat with a negative first, but a positive second, derivative.  Good enough.  Gimme a little piece of land in the caribbean where it never snows and the breeze is gentle...)

"I'd rather be a hammer than a nail.
 I'd rather be a sparrow than a snail."
  --Paul Simon's interpretation of a 17th century Peruvian song originally by Jose Milchberg

Of course, I'd rather be the rat that gets the cheese. 

[Gabu]

Claiming someone has a one in four chance of getting such income is misleading though.  Of those indicators which are the result of chance, rather than hard work, what sort of family one is born into and their fiscal status is probably the strongest influence (and for everyone here that has already been determined).   Hard work is,of course, nearly indespensible for those who wish to be upwardly mobile, though it is  no guarenee of success.  The chances of succeeding through hard work are better than the lotto though.  If OTOH, you're born on third base like GW, Opebo, or so many others - don't go boasting about hitting a triple - all you did was win the birth lottery. (and in many cases got continually bailed out despite blowing it repeatedly).

Well, yes, I will readily admit that my "1 in 5" comment was a vast oversimplification of where one can get in life, but it does fully refute opebo's assertation that hardly any jobs exit that earn you over $75,000.

Personally, I feel that even if you can't be the next Bill Gates, the least you can do is try.  Lazing around in defeatist pessimism never got anyone anywhere in life.