The average 45 voter earns $72,000 a year. Why is everyone saying they are poor?

[BigmanPigman]

This was reported in several media sources in May 2016. This is a solid middle class yearly income. Why does everyone still insist his base is financially left in the lurch?

This is the median household income of his voters from exit polls in 23 primary states. It was reported in the NY Times and Five Thirty Eight.

[underpants]

1. Well that number could reflect higher wage earners AND lower wage earnings

So the average is inflated by a few higher earners.

[Beartracks]

4. My thoughts, too.

Assuming much of the 1% is in the mix, that will definitely skew the average.

============

[still_one]

5. Exacatly. Average is not a good measure, median is a better measure

[pnwmom]

20. 72K is the median, not the average.

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-mythology-of-trumps-working-class-support/

[still_one]

29. Thanks. The headline said average. It is based on exit polls from 23

states, based on primary exit polls in those states from May 2016

[pnwmom]

30. Right. So the median from the general election might be even higher,

because it would include Kasich voters ($91K median) and others.

[BigmanPigman]

7. No, it's from exit polls conducted in 23 primary states from last year.

It is the median household income of his voters.

[pnwmom]

19. It's actually the MEDIAN, not the average.

So the number hasn't been pulled up by the wealthy.

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-mythology-of-trumps-working-class-support/

[Warpy]

2. Because that's two earners, usually

and once you throw in a house in the burbs, two cars so that both parents can get to work, and a couple of kiddies needing child care, it doesn't go very far. They are unlikely to be able to afford college for those kids and their retirement savings will be thin to none. That means working class, not middle class.

[pnwmom]

31. It's still higher than the median of Hillary voters. So the idea that his voters

were more financially strapped than hers is wrong.

[Sanity Claws]

3. Is that average or median?

Do you have a cite I could check?
If it is the median, then the average supporter is not at all poor. They are earning well above the median, particularly when you note that the states he took are not high income states, like NY, California, Hawaii.

[pnwmom]

21. Median. Here's the link.

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-mythology-of-trumps-working-class-support/

[Orrex]

6. Because they're damn poor excuses for human beings

Idiot racist fuckheads, all of them.

[Weekend Warrior]

8. Because the average 45 voter does not equal his base.

That is not how the concept of "base" works.

[Runningdawg]

9. I don't need statistics to tell me Trump voters are poor

Visit a Walmart on the day Welfare benefits are paid, count the # of cars in the parking lot with a Trump bumper sticker.

[loyalsister]

24. omg

I once heard a mail carrier say that people in some neighborhoods act like hungry dogs on that day. Sad to see that sentiment here.

[TacoD]

10. Headline says average, post says median. Which is it? (nt)

[BigmanPigman]

11. Median.

[cemaphonic]

12. Trump's base and Trump 2016 voters overlap, but aren't necessarily the same group of people.

The really passionate MAGA-wearing Trump supporters do seem to be from economically depressed areas. But Trump pulled similar numbers as McCain and Romney, so clearly most of the regular reliable Republican voting block turned out to vote for him, even if they didn't think very highly of him. And there's plenty of high income voters in that block.

[leftstreet]

17. I suspect his rabid rally base didn't vote at all

I think the numbers in the OP can work fine, if it's assumed they voted GOP because they ALWAYS vote GOP

I don't get the impression his rabid weirdo cult base votes at all. I think they woke up one morning and found themselves with a POTUS worth slithering out from under their rocks for.

And I suspect they'll slither back under when he's gone

[wasupaloopa]

13. If that is a median it is not an average. Median means half are below

and half are above. So there most likely are some poor folks voting for Trump.

[unc70]

18. Mean, median, and mode all all measures of central tendency

Each can be generally referred to as an average. The two most commonly used and confused are the median and the arithmetic mean. (There are various other means.)

When dealing with things like average or typical income for a population, the median is considered the proper measure.

[wasupaloopa]

35. Every school I attended and excel formulas

calculate average by dividing the total by the number of items totaled.
So average has a definite meaning and it is not a median.

Using the term average for median is misleading at best.

Maybe the anti intellectual era we are in has taken hold.

[unc70]

39. Mean or arithmetic mean is only one of many averages

Average refers to any of a variety of indicators of central tendency. The description in Wikipedia is typical. Yes, in your school you might have only learned the simplistic arithmetic mean as "average", but in practice there are many types of measures of central tendency referred to as averages. For things like "average income", median is preferred over arithmetic mean.

In colloquial language, an average is a middle or typical number of a list of numbers. Different concepts of average are used in different contexts. Often "average" refers to the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are being averaged; in mathematics and statistics, this would be called the arithmetic mean. In statistics, mean, median, and mode are all known as measures of central tendency, and in colloquial usage sometimes any of these might be called an average value.

BTW While Excel reports the arithmetic mean for its average, the statistical package in Excel is exceptionally poor. It can barely do a mean if all the values are of similar magnitude. It wrongly calculates many descriptive statistics. Use products like SAS instead. If you don't believe me, search the net for Excel and statistics.

P.S. I am an expert in these matters.

[madinmaryland]

14. 3,000,000 billionaires and millionaires will tend to skew that number. nt

[Xolodno]

15. That number is pretty much meaningless.

Cost of living has a significant impact say one lives in San Francisco vs. Orlando.

And it excludes average debt by area which should also be considered. In other words, if I'm making 90k in Seattle, but cost of living eats a significant chunk...how much are you really making if you lived in say Helena, MT making only 60k? And what did it "cost" you to get that income? In other words, how much non-dischargeable debt, such as student loans do you have?

[BannonsLiver]

27. Yep if you're in SF making that chances are you are living in your car.

Especially if you have kids or other things going on that hemmorages money.

[bettyellen]

16. So they can trash the DNC for not reaching "the forgotten man" aka "WWC"

[trueblue2007]

22. i have never made 72 thousand dollars A YEAR in my life.

24 thousand was the most i ever made back in the 1980's

[pnwmom]

23. That's actually the median. The average would be even higher, because it would be

pulled up by the 1%.

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-mythology-of-trumps-working-class-support/

The median household income of a Trump voter so far in the primaries is about $72,000, based on estimates derived from exit polls and Census Bureau data. That’s lower than the $91,000 median for Kasich voters. But it’s well above the national median household income of about $56,000. It’s also higher than the median income for Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders supporters, which is around $61,000 for both.

[mercuryblues]

25. median household income

[dalton99a]

26. Economic anxiety, my ass

[GaryCnf]

28. It's the confluence of opposing camps

Similar to how the "Waiting for Superman" crowd and the anti-labor right to work wingers joined hands to destroy teachers, the right wants to claim they won because of the working class and SOME Democrats want to blame the working class and both of them are wrong.

[wishstar]

32. All the deplorables I know personally are quite well off financially

The Trumpers I know are brainwashed Fox watchers, but otherwise intelligent, educated professionals., They want their taxes cut but are also racist and/or misogynist and/or nationalistic and/or fundamentalist leaning, brainwashed Fox watchers with irrational anti-Clinton derangement.

[NewJeffCT]

34. The average Romney voter in 2012 had a much higher income

than Trump voters in 2016.

[Kingofalldems]

36. So what is your point exactly?

[BigmanPigman]

37. I thought it is a pretty high figure to be considered "poor" by so many

people for the past 9 months whenever I hear that the problems with the Dems and the campaign is that we didn't focus on the poor and that is one of the main reasons we lost the election. The media keeps saying that if we are to win future elections we need to focus more on the poor, poor voters who voted for 45 instead of the "elite". That amount is nothing to sneeze at in my book.
I make less than 1/2 that now and live in the 8th most expensive US city and 25% of that goes to paying my ACA health insurance (with out of pocket costs it is 1/3) and I was told it is increasing 12.5% today. I would be thrilled to be healthy and making $72,000! I have two college degrees and worked my ass off as a teacher when I found out artists are a dime a dozen, even with degrees. I saved every penny for 30 years and it is all disappearing now that I am very sick and have huge bills all the time due to it.

[GulfCoast66]

38. Because it was not the average voter that carried the day for Trump

It was the beer drinking blue collar guy that seldom or never votes and a rather small percent of the total.

But enough to tip the balance.

Ironically they are the type of voter that the average republican voter has been fucking over for decades. But 8 years of a black president, a women on the ballot and a white supremacist candidate got them off their asses and to the polls.