What's your income strata for 2006?- w/ poll

There have been a number of demographic polls here lately.  Off the top of my head; one was about age, another about sexual orientation and another about geographic location.  But I don't think we have had one about income.  I searched back 2 weeks using income as the search word.  If I'm wrong please let me know and I will delete this.

What brought this to mind was in reading ToqueDeville's diary and the discussion this evening/morning. http://www.dailykos.com/...

Pardon me, I'm a luddite with the fancy-schmancy linky stuff.

In one of his responses he cites this information to buttress his assertion:  http://www.dailykos.com/...

Now that's all well and good for it's purpose, but the information is from 2004.  I've been here just over a year and it MY sense that the economic demographics of this site are possibly different now.

So, since we are close to the end of this year, here's the question.

How much did you make this year?

We'll use a general IRS rules sort of criteria.  Student loans and Pell Grants, etc. don't count.  If you are self-employed use a ball-park of your net.  Alimony and child support do count for the purposes of this exercise as income.

And don't forget to hit the Recommend button so we get a good sampling.

•  Will poll for tips. n/t

  by MTmofo on Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 01:56:41 AM PDT

  •  Crap

    Not sure if I voted correctly if I include my revenue sharing chunk. Should have been a level higher, I think.

    by gracchus on Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 02:22:52 AM PDT

    •  I'll have the techies get right on it.

      shuuuh, right.

      Thanks for participating.

      by MTmofo on Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 02:25:08 AM PDT

      •  Was upset about screwing up your data

        This is probably one of the few places where participants wouldn't add to their incomes in the responses.

        by gracchus on Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 02:28:42 AM PDT

        •  No worries. A poll here is unscientific

          right out of the gate.  Since it depends on who sees it and then who answers it, it's "academic" rather than academic.

          by MTmofo on Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 02:33:35 AM PDT

          •  Sampling is an issue, true n/t

            by gracchus on Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 02:35:05 AM PDT

            •  I agree

              My guess is that a left-wing blog will tend to barbell somewhat relative to the general population, with better representation among the lower income strata (who, I would guess, tend to lean Democratic out of economic self-interest) and higher income strata (high income correlates positively with education - and just look at "intelligent design" to figure out the Republican attitude toward education).

              Interestingly, when I worked on Wall Street, my colleagues generally leaned a good deal farther to the left than the stereotype of businessmen would have you believe.  I worked with a pretty sophisticated product, which may have had something to do with that (again, more education shifting one's politics leftward).

              by timoth31 on Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 05:46:53 AM PDT

              •  The closer to the coalface of capitalism

                The more apparent the flaws.

                by gracchus on Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 06:44:39 AM PDT

        •  I screwed it up too.

          Forgot that we became slum-lords this year. (A local term for those who rent to university students)  That adds 25000 to our total.

          by murasaki on Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 07:39:55 AM PDT

          •  No worries, Close enough for who it's for.

            Thanks for participating.

            by MTmofo on Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 07:41:55 AM PDT

•  I think

  is more good info for DailyKos to know.  If we want to peddle our influence, it helps if we have some.  

  by dkmich on Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 02:51:10 AM PDT

  •  That was my thought as well.

    Thank you for being a part of this exercise.

    by MTmofo on Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 02:54:47 AM PDT

•  In case you're wondering,

  I am tending this diary.  Feel free to engage in wage-based bitching.

  by MTmofo on Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 03:02:15 AM PDT

  •  It's interesting to see early on

    a sort of reverse bell-curve -- we're more heavily represented in the lowest and highest categories. Perhaps this is an anomaly of the early phases of polling, or perhaps the two ends of the spectrum happen to be up early!

    by kath25 on Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 04:04:47 AM PDT

    •  And there are too many permutations

      involved to be able to speculate about those results.

      by MTmofo on Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 04:20:58 AM PDT

      •  True.

        However, perhaps does hold up with statistics of voting trends, which claim that people with those two income levels tend to vote overwhelmingly Democratic.

        by kath25 on Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 04:42:42 AM PDT

  •  How about poll based bitching?

    When you make under 50 grand or so, 5 grand is a lot of money. I made under 12 thousand last year. I did check 10-20, but that spread is just too much in the lower brackets.

    by emmasnacker on Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 07:36:58 AM PDT

    •  Sorry. I did the best I could with

      the 15 slots they allow, and still have room for dessert. ;)

      by MTmofo on Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 07:40:43 AM PDT

      •  Oh right, I forgot that this site

        censors people. /snark
        I guess I should have voted leftover pie.

        by emmasnacker on Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 07:47:07 AM PDT

•  So far it looks like Poisson on the lower end...

  ...and normal on the upper.  But it's early days.

  by rserven on Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 04:18:37 AM PDT

•  single or joint?

  do you want to know what I make, or what my spousse and I file as our joint income?

  by brillig on Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 05:28:22 AM PDT

  •  I am assuming that people are reporting

    their total household income.  And I'm assuming that they assumed that that was what I meant.  Sorry for the lack of clarity.  I'm not a professional pollster type, one each, general issue.

    by MTmofo on Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 05:34:02 AM PDT

    •  oops, next time say that. It would make a big dif

      by kck on Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 07:52:34 AM PDT

      •  in my case...

        I'd have to add 45K to the total, in fact. :-/  I just put mine down.

        by billlaurelMD on Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 07:58:05 AM PDT

        •  Well for some of us

          one income IS the total household income.

          And we don't always live alone.

          by Brooke In Seattle on Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 10:03:24 AM PDT

          •  well....

            in my case, my partner is unemployed now and has been since 7/31/06.  No prospects in sight.  The extra income was the result of severance pay.

            by billlaurelMD on Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 01:32:25 PM PDT

•  Thanks for posting

  another semi-failed attempt to get Kossacks to talk about personal finance (except in the sense of "I'm getting screwed by credit card companies/health insurance companies/high gas prices.")  I've always desperately wanted to know: how wealthy is this community?  How anomalous are those of us who are distinctly lacking in personal wealth?

  Maybe try reworking sometime and not posting at 3 am?  :)

  by renaissance grrrl on Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 05:31:48 AM PDT

  •  I'll wait for DrSteveB (up list) next time.

    He has WAY more of a clue on this polling stuff than I do.

    Sometimes sleep just doesn't assert itself strongly enough with me.

    by MTmofo on Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 05:37:28 AM PDT

  •  Not sure why anybody cares to hide

    what they make, but I too screwed up by posting individual rather than household income.  But the roommate I live with doesn't contribute to household bills other than occasionally picking up dinner or doing a bit of grocery shopping.  She's got all she can do to keep up with her student loans and car payments on the measly pay she gets.

    I made about 30k last year, and am closing in on 40k this year  - my total bounces around in inverse ratio to the amount of time classes leave me available to work.  Hoping that I'll successfully finish up and get my RN this coming June and be able to double my income by working as a nurse weekends and continue as a programmer during the week.

    by drbloodaxe on Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 01:46:47 PM PDT

•  Location

  makes a huge difference in terms of what wages actually mean.  What $60,000 will buy in SF, LA, NYC, Boston is really different than what it will buy in Iowa or Utah or Kentucky etc.  I know that there isn't a way to poll income to location info but I do think that makes a difference in terms of how much disposable income is available.  

  I hope you get a good sampling for this.  I think the early timing of the diary may be an issue so I recc'd it to keep it around for a while.

  by sobermom on Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 05:36:15 AM PDT

  •  Thank you for your support. As

    DrSteveB indicated in our exchange below his diary/poll above, this topic is quite difficult for people to share info, even this anonymously.

    by MTmofo on Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 05:40:31 AM PDT

•  Household or

  individual income?

  Per capita per household?

  by Frankenoid on Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 05:53:29 AM PDT

  •  Household please. Thanks for your

    participation.

    by MTmofo on Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 05:57:49 AM PDT

•  Voted with household income

  That's the demographic the poll companies always ask me.

  It's interesting that people are uncomfortable with their income level for polling. If you have money wield it like a club on the advertisers and politicians. If you are at the low end of the money spectrum - hammer it home to the politicos to do more for the working and middle class.

  The nice thing is that when these polls finish up they usually show that DailyKos represents a pretty wide spectrum of the economic classes.

  by SallyCat on Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 05:57:22 AM PDT

  •  Thank you for participating. It was

    delightful to see you in the pix of the SF gathering.

    You are correct that whatever the income level, make people know that you still count.

    Take care.

    by MTmofo on Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 06:00:26 AM PDT

    •  Are you going to YearlyKos?

      I really want to chat about cool things in MT to do on my 2008 trip up your way! Beer is on me for any of the MT contingent in Chicago that will play tourist advisor!

      by SallyCat on Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 07:06:05 AM PDT

      •  My magic 8 ball says-answer unclear. But,

        in the meantime I'd be happy to advise and assist to the extent that I can and you can buy beer when you get here. ;)

        I'll use the email in your profile and contact you with subject: Kossak calling

        by MTmofo on Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 07:11:51 AM PDT

      •  Well, that got kicked back to me. So,

        I am at: asdfmt12 (at) yahoo dot com.

        by MTmofo on Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 07:23:35 AM PDT

        •  Done...I'll check the email contact

          maybe I have too much protection out there!

          by SallyCat on Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 07:29:45 AM PDT

•  Me and my cats decided for the last few years

  not to pay any taxes to support this corrupt administration, and that requires not making any money, so right now I'm at the bottom of the list although I used to be at the top.

  by toys on Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 06:32:33 AM PDT

•  Remarkably even distribution of responses.

  Does that strike you as unusual?

  by Captain Nimrod on Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 07:42:20 AM PDT

  •  Not being a statistician, I don't know. Note

    that over 100k the top two categories are in 50k increments and not 10k like the rest.

    But, yes I have noticed how even the first 10 levels have panned out.  A coupla hours ago the bottom 3 and top 2 were running about even with a dip in the others in between.

    by MTmofo on Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 07:53:24 AM PDT

  •  Perhaps

    That could be an indicator that some people are looking at the current results before casting their vote, but I'd be more inclined to take it at face value.

    It will be interesting to see what DrSteveB comes up with when he does his poll.  Hopefully, he will get more responses than the 319 that I see on this one.  I'm not a statistician either, but this number appears a little low for drawing definitive conclusions besides all the usual arguments about self selection, truthiness, etc.

    Nevertheless, your results aren't too far off from the 2005 Census estimate (Table A-1 on page 31).  They used different buckets than this poll did, but using a common denominator of <10K, 10K-50K, 50K-100K and>100K, it appears that dKos is slightly overrepresented at the bottom, significantly underrepresented in the lower middle, and significantly overrepresented in both upper middle and upper categories.

             Census%/dkos%
    <10K:      8.3/8.8 <br>10K-50K:  45.1/32.8
    50K-100K: 29.5/35.3
    >100K:     17.2/23.0

    This is a huge generalization, so take it for what it's worth; i.e., not a whole lot.

    by Chris 47N122W on Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 01:34:52 PM PDT

    •  Thanks for taking the time to participate and

      provide some analysis.

      by MTmofo on Tue Dec 05, 2006 at 01:55:59 PM PDT