New York (Texas and Tennessee) fact of the day

The median household income in the city of New York is a few hundred dollars a year more than the median household income in the state of Texas, but in practical terms the average New York City household is much worse off.The most obvious issue is the cost of housing, which for New Yorkers is about four times what it is for Texans.

That is from Kevin Williamson, who stresses that New York City is actually a relatively poor place.

By the way, New York and DC have Ginis reflecting more inequality than what we find in Mexico or Nigeria.  Manhattan and Putnam County, Tennessee have Ginis almost as high as that of South Africa.

Have I mentioned that a Gini coefficient isn’t a very good measure of inequality for most purposes?  It does not command much loyalty from people who actually work in that area (generalized entropy measures are much more popular), yet it has become a staple of discussion in popular economics.

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