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Median (not Mean) Household income in the US...Where is it headed?


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2013 Mar 26, 4:15pm   5,428 views  10 comments

by American in Japan   ➕follow (1)   💰tip   ignore  

All I got was this lousy graph on Wikipedia. It looks like it is going down (probably around $50,000/ household now). I think this fingure is more important than the mean household income which is skewed toward the very very wealthy. How will the trend go in the next years?...

Median income falls, but so does poverty (CNN.com) Sept. 2012

and this one (thanks Alexio) :
How much do Americans earn?/What is the average US income? (Mybudget360.com)

I can't see a real recovery in housing which will boost the overall economy as long as this median stays down.

#housing

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1   American in Japan   2013 Mar 28, 12:11am  

>* median anything is useless if you don't think about what the median even represents and the deviation

I agree. but the mean is even less important.

2   swebb   2013 Mar 28, 12:37am  

SFace says

* median anything is useless if you don't think about what the median even represents and the deviation (25%, 75% tile).

I don't understand this. The median definitely doesn't tell the whole picture, but it's pretty useful for giving a sense of what the typical person / family earns. It's a lot more robust to skewed distributions (like the super rich, or the recently unemployed) than the mean. And for relative comparisons over time it does a fairly good job of showing trends...unless the distribution is changing drastically. Am I missing something?

3   lostand confused   2013 Mar 28, 1:18am  

SFace says

In 2013, we may very well see income growth to meet in

Where is income growth going to come from in this globalized economy?? The Chinese are seeing income growth-in double digits-not us.

4   alexio   2013 Mar 29, 5:25am  

Here's a good article on the subject (at mybudget360.com):

How much do Americans earn? What is the average US income and other income figures. Fiscal cliff talks only useful in context of incomes.

http://www.mybudget360.com/how-much-do-americans-earn-what-is-the-average-us-income/

5   American in Japan   2013 Mar 29, 11:08pm  

This needs to be considered when there is all this talk of "recovery". Recovery for who..the top 10%?

6   PeopleUnited   2013 Mar 30, 12:07am  

Yeah, what does recovery mean for the bottom 90%? It means they have temporarily convinced us that we are still free to live the "American Dream" keep buying their junk and going to their movies and sporting events, and quit planning for the cannibal anarchy for a little while.

7   PeopleUnited   2013 Mar 30, 5:43am  

Good advice, like Zombies, it is not good to attract cannibals, that is why I don't go to casinos or banks if I can avoid it.

8   New Renter   2013 Mar 30, 10:44am  

The Professor says

Vaticanus says

and quit planning for the cannibal anarchy for a little while.

I disagree. You should always be prepared. Make sure you have plenty of yams and arrows. Unless you can afford a gatling gun and a couple million rounds per AF's teachings, arrows will kill silently whereas gunfire will attract more cannibals.

Better stock up on claymores too

9   American in Japan   2013 Apr 1, 1:55pm  

http://money.cnn.com/2012/09/12/news/economy/median-income-poverty/index.html

This came out a few months earlier, but is quite informative.

10   American in Japan   2013 Apr 9, 12:47pm  

Looking for more data...

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