Is C.O.L. in TX really less?

[aceplace]

Originally Posted by socketz

Southern California has a substantial number of low-wage immigrants who provide necessary but inexpensive services as well. Most likely, many more than Dallas.

.....

Also, I could see Plano supporting higher family incomes overall because the total number is only 270k or so and there are no real low income areas in Plano, so the lows in the average are more like mid-incomes. In larger samples taken from larger cities, you'll have a segment on the low end that consist of poverty stricken people and very low incomes. This is really similar to what I was describing for Irvine CA as well.

The important issue is that you cannot use "average" income as a measure of anything, since an average is a mathematical idea, rather than a description of the real world. You will not find averages in nature, only in the minds of statisticians.

For example, it's possible to compute an average telephone number. But once you do... what is the meaning of the average telephone number? And if you did, how many people have that average telephone number? Hmmmm... it might be hard to connect to a number with digits after the decimal point. The switched telephone networks just use integers.

There are exceptions to that general rule, of course. Air temperature is the average of the temperature of each individual molecule of the gases in air. But of course the people that constitute human societies are not as insignificant as molecules of air, and we approach them as individuals, so averages are not relevant in this case.

Also, averages hide important distinctions. I would only care about the circumstances pertaining to my own narrowly defined demographic class, not Texans in general versus Southern Californians in general. I am not the "average man", whatever that is. I have a specific profession with a specific range of compensation, and I have a specific list of expenses.

The costs of my specific expenses and my expected professional renumeration would be affected by a move between Dallas and LA. The only question I care about is... is it to my economic advantage to move?

Or, if I were an illiterate farm worker from a Southern Mexican state such as Guerrero or Oaxaca, would Southern California or North Texas be more advantageous? Same general question, highly different circumstances and potential answer.

[El Passeaux]

Originally Posted by cdelena

A few things that make cooling costs high in Texas compared to other areas are

- limited cooling at night prompts more cooling hours
- higher average humidity prompts more cooling hours
- electricity rates that average in the top ten in the country

Obviously there are pockets with exceptions (some have low rate co-ops, West Texas has low humidity) but generally Texans spend a lot more on electricity in the summer.

Most houses out in El Paso use the evaporative cooler instead of refrigerated air so its much less expensive and much less effective.