Charles Murray continues to collect data from volunteers who take his social class isolation bubble quiz.
He’s now got a sample size of over 40,000 (probably disproportionately from NPR listeners) and he looks at it by zip code. Among zips with at least 15 respondents, the most upscale in class terms is Fremont in Silicon Valley followed by a zip code on the Upper East Side of New York.
If he loosens his rule to look at zip codes with 10 to 14 respondents, he gets:
Fourteen zip codes had 10–14 respondents and scores lower than 27, meaning that they were virtually a lock to have qualified for the top 100 if they had added just a few more respondents. In order of scores from low to high, they were Westborough, MA (with an incredibly low mean of 18.7), Rockville Centre, NY, Briarcliff Manor, NY, Old Greenwich, CT, Del Mar, CA, Mount Kisco, NY, Malibu, CA, Chestnut Hill, PA, Stanford, CA’s second zip code (94304), Lincoln, MA, Tarzana, CA, Rockport, MA, Greenwich, CT, and Manhasset, NY.Westborough is an exurb of Boston. It was home to Eli Whitney.
Rockville Centre is on Long Island. It’s home to a lot of celebrities like Howard Stern and Sandy Koufax.
Briarcliff Manor is an exurb of New York City near the Hudson River in Westchester County. It’s home to Trump National Golf Club.
Old Greenwich, CT is part of Greenwich, the home of the hedge fund industry.
Del Mar is a north San Diego County home with a safe beach. It’s home to 3 NFL quarterbacks.
Mt. Kisco, NY is in Westchester County. It has a mansion and estate belt.
I may have mentioned Malibu, CA once or twice.
Chestnut Hill, PA is the Old Money neighborhood in Philly. Professor E. Digby Baltzell, coiner of “WASP,” lived there.
Tarzana, CA is named after Tarzan.
My guess is that Murray’s quiz tends to find upscale suburbs full of Indian (e.g., Westborough and Fremont) or Persian (e.g., Tarzana) immigrants who listen to NPR but don’t know much about America. I wonder what zip code Raj Chetty lives in?
