On: Bruce Sterling: Poor folk love their cellphones

[pfedor]

In downtown Palo Alto you can see people sitting on the sidewalk with cardboards which say they lost their jobs and don't have money for food, talking on their iPhones.

[Adam503 → pfedor]

You think there's poor people in Pala Alto, CA, huh?

Wikipedia has per capita income in Palo Alto, CA as $56,257.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_locations_by_per_cap...

[joechung → Adam503]

Given the number of people whose income is over $56K, that implies that there are just as many, if not more, people whose income is below that.

[Adam503 → joechung]

The US standard for poverty is roughly $10,500 a year. Palo Alto's median income more than 5 times the US poverty standard.

Go find me a place IN Palo Alto someone whose income is $10,500 a year can pay what the US Fed. Gov't standard for what it considers reasonable rent... 30% of one's income to live IN Palo Alto.