Comments on: This Just In: Philadelphians Have A Sense Of Decency

By: beepbeep

beepbeep — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 19:52:16 +0000

A sample size of 650, in theory, allows you to say that you’re 95 percent confident that the survey results are within +/- 4 percent of what Philadelphians who are registered to vote actually think, which is pretty good.

In order for that to hold true, though, you need to be sure that other sorts of error (aside from sampling error) aren’t distorting the survey results. In this case, since the survey summary (http://www.keepandshare.com/doc/view.php?id=941588&da=y) doesn’t disclose anything else about the survey methodology, we can’t assess any other sources of error. For example, the summary doesn’t disclose any demographic information about the respondents, so there’s no way of knowing how the 650 registered voters that were interviewed (and their opinions about budget cuts, etc) are different from the other registered voters in Philadelphia who were not interviewed.

In other words, I’d take the results with a grain of salt.

By: Patricio

Patricio — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 19:22:06 +0000

Wilford Brimley’s oatmeal filled feeding tube has more credibility reporting Philadelphia’s economic woes then Young Philly Politics.

By: Patricio

Patricio — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 19:18:55 +0000

If anyone has paused for a moment you’d realized tax cuts in this city have done just that…paused. We aren’t cutting any more taxes for what looks like the next 6 years if you’ve read the mayors report. Mayor Nuter was elected to bring down two distructive taxes in this town the BPT (business privalge tax) and the wage tax. Not to sound all fucking GOP on everybody but Philadelphia is the highest taxed city in the country and when employers look to start and/or move a business here, whether big or small, the first thing they look at are taxes. Now economics 101 teaches us that businesses BRING more money for services but they also employee people as well. The biggest ill for urban america is the lack of jobs, their void is filled in by illegal jobs such as the drug trade, prostitution, chop shops, etc.

Nutter needs to still be cutting these 2 taxes right now more then ever. The city needs to bring private investers for those gov’t funded places that are TRULY needed. We can establish more funds by bringing in a fair land tax and having the state pay for the those locally incarcerated like they do in most cities like Boston and Baltimore.

By: Patricio

Patricio — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 19:01:49 +0000

Dude what the fuck. I see the absurd title, click on to read the rest of the story and I see a “scientific” study brought to you by YoungPhillyPolitics. Ughhh.

By: Zombie Larry

Zombie Larry — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 17:24:00 +0000

there is a dude that comes into my local Wawa for coffee thay looks exactly like Wilford. What makes it even more funny is that his girlfriend looks like Annette Funicello.

By: Nate

Nate — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 16:48:10 +0000

Cheez –
1) 650 is not a bad sample size, assuming the sampling methodology is sound.

2) I think you are reading that wrong. I’m not delving too deep into these results right now, so I could be wrong, but I don’t think that inference is correct.

By: C. The Impaler

C. The Impaler — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 15:42:12 +0000

I’m not a stats expert, but can someone tell me whether 650 is indeed a good sample for a poll of Philadelphia’s electorate/taxpayers?

Also, the one I’m scratching my head at, maybe on account of my statistical illiteracy:

1.) 21% of those polled were in favor of Bizarro Nutter’s cuts.
2.) Only 10% of those polled want their scheduled wage tax cut.

Does this mean that 11% of the polling body wants the Nutter budget cuts and decline their scheduled wage tax cut? Who/where are these masochistic logic failures?