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TummyDrums t1_iz19ty6 wrote

Reply to comment by Big-Row-7895 in Springfield is the poorest city in Missouri by WaywardDeadite

I was curious so I looked it up, and there are 29 cities in MO with a population greater than 25k. Only 6 of those are not suburbs of KC or STL. Those places are (in order of most populous to least):

  1. Springfield
  2. Columbia
  3. St. Joseph
  4. Joplin
  5. Jefferson City
  6. Cape Girardeau

Make of that what you will.

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lochlainn t1_iz1ebhz wrote

Exactly. Statistically, it's obvious why Springfield is the "poorest city".

The ones above it are the rich suburbs of large cities, and the ones below it are barely cities.

"Which of the 3 urban areas in Missouri is poorest?" would give us the exact same conclusion.

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WendyArmbuster t1_iz2qjez wrote

$37k median household income is really poor though. I can't imagine trying to cope on that income, although I guess that includes college kids living in apartments and single people doing their thing. When I think of poor I think of Poplar Bluff, and dang if their median household income isn't just $2k less than ours. We're almost as poor as Poplar Bluff, and that's alarming.

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agentbarron t1_iz2w64x wrote

There's over 42 thousand college students in springfield, that's a huge amount compared to the 167,000 living in springfield as of 2021

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ThumYorky t1_iz3t78o wrote

Where are you getting the 42,000 number?

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VaderTower t1_iz3ukt2 wrote

Yeah I agree that's probably wrong. MSU total students are 26k, Evangel 2k, Drury 2k, OTC total is 11k but there's a lot of online and satellite locations. I'd guess more like 35k, but 40k isn't out of reason.

Didn't include other bible collages or the odd for profit ones, I can't imagine there's another 1k hiding in all of them.

That being said, it's a good point if we have roughly 40k students in a population of 160k, that means 25% of our population counted are college students, many of whom are very under employed making part time money skewing the average way down. Probably the same reason Columbia is right there with us.

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agentbarron t1_iz44j0l wrote

https://www.springfieldregion.com/data/schools-and-universities/

Students Springfield Metro Area Total 42,416 Missouri State University 23,618 Ozarks Technical Community College 9,926 Drury University 2,462 Evangel University 2,129 Southwest Baptist University – SBU 1,713 Cox College of Nursing & Health Sciences 956 Midwest Technical Institute 466* SBU – Springfield Campus (includes Mercy College of Nursing) 442 Baptist Bible College 279 Bryan University 275* Columbia College 150

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Sophia_Starr t1_iz3c7qk wrote

It depends.

My income is right below that. I'm working on ways to earn more (I have a lot of untapped talents and I'm not dead yet, so).

But it hasn't been uncomfortable.

Just tighter than I'd like.

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CheffRick t1_iz2x3p1 wrote

Cost of living in popular bluff is actually higher and they make less so they are a lot poorer than us. This study is going strictly on how much you make. Which is a mistake you also have to factor in the cost of living in the area. When corporations set payroll for salary workers in an area they do it by cost of living. I pay people here in Springfield 13 to $14 an hour to do the same job I pay people 25 to $27 an hour to do in Saint Louis. The reason for this is cost of living. It's an average of 2 to $3 per item more expensive to buy the same thing I sell here. In my restaurants that are ran in Saint Louis to for this very reason. I have to be able to pay a living wage to my employees and still make a big enough profit to keep said business running. This is the reason everybody that owns a business is getting really sick of hearing whiny and entitled little shit stains. Yelling we need to raise minimum wage. Then I have to raise the price of my goods to keep my doors open so does everyone else which means you didn't actually get a raise in minimum wage due to the inflation. If everybody has the same amount of something it is worthless. Most democrats can't grasp this fact.

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BrianArmstro t1_iz3ekp3 wrote

I certainly don’t want to hear you complaining about “how no one wants to work anymore” or how understaffed you are when you don’t pay people enough to even live on. You can’t live on $13 or $14 an hour in Springfield or anywhere else. Sorry that no one wants to work for free.

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CheffRick t1_iz3zi2l wrote

I have several employees I don't have a problem finding help and my employees are happy. You also most certainly can live on 13 to $14 an hour in Springfield easily. You just can't afford to have every digital service known to man. Or drive brand new vehicles. I'm sorry you can't afford a Tesla on $14 an hour. This doesn't mean your employer is not paying you a livable wage. I can't afford absolutely everything I want because my employer doesn't pay me enough. This is the mentality of a small child throwing a temper tantrum. An your words express this ever so eloquently. Entitled children. Open your own business and your views will change because reality will smack you in the face.

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WendyArmbuster t1_iz3c9c1 wrote

I think a lot of businesses aren't going to be able to survive in the near future, honestly. I make plenty of money to live as comfortably as I want, but at the same time I'm cutting back on things I don't really need, especially eating out and services that are mostly for convenience, and I know a lot of people are making the same decision. I think a lot of businesses were cultivated in a time when there was so much spare money all around, from the 1990's until recently, and I feel like there's going to be a shakeout on what people really value and find important.

I've been seeing what happens when I just stop spending money, and my quality of life hasn't dropped one bit. I'm cooking at home, playing my banjo, reading, and hanging out in the woods and parks with my old friends.

I have some friends who own businesses and they're noting that the current crop of high school and college-aged employees are among the best they've ever had. They say they are more punctual than in the recent past, are more appreciative of having a job, work harder, and all-around do a better job than they've ever seen.

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emg381t t1_iz21c34 wrote

St Joseph should be on this list

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TummyDrums t1_iz24mz8 wrote

You're right, it should be. Off the top of my head I was thinking it'd be considered a suburb of KC, but looking at a map it is further away from KC than I realized. I'll update the list.

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