Jefferson, LA was chosen arbitrarily. Click the link beneath this chart and check on your income/budget situation. It's quite interesting.
http://www.nccp.org/...
And including these maps and charts below:
Note: At the bottom of the above chart is the % of poverty. In this case this family is at 203% or, in other words, they earn 2.03 times the $$ amount considered poverty level income (around $22-$24K for a family of four. % of poverty or FDL will become very important for families seeking help with health insurance premiums, etc.
Again, use this chart above to see how your family is doing, btw. It's quite interesting.
For the charts below, you might have to zoom in a bit.
Rather than share opinions, I am interested in yours. Do you draw any conclusions from this empirical data? If so, please share them.
http://myweb.unomaha.edu/...
Note: The above map is for 2007, before the layoffs increased.
This chart is too much to post. You will find the earnings of our citizens on the 2010 Census results here. The majority of families earn less than $44,000/year.
\http://www.krusekronicle.com/social_indicators_series/