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Depends on which average. In the case of very large wealth inequality the mean is going to make the picture a lot rosier than the median. I’d posit the average
by meheleventyone 9y ago
Depends on which average. In the case of very large wealth inequality the mean is going to make the picture a lot rosier than the median. I’d posit the average person cares more about the median than the mean as well.
- IncRnd 9y agoWhat do you mean by "depends on which average"? As far as I know, average is another word for mean, and median is the middle value, unrelated to mean.
- JohnStrange 9y agoHe probably meant to say "measure of central tendency".
- IncRnd 9y agoYou might be right. I'm not sure why I was downvoted for asking for a clarification. In any case, it wasn't clear if he meant the average person or an average about wealth or income. Average could have meant a colloquial reference to the average person, or it could have been a misuse of the statistical term.
- meheleventyone 9y agoSorry I meant wealth and thought that was obvious from talking about wealth inequality as opposed to income inequality.
- meheleventyone 9y agoI guess I was colloquially referring to the difference we would see depending on whether the mean, median or mode was used. At least from my (British) point of view these are all called an “average” generally speaking. Hopefully the second and third sentences cleared that up as I specifically describe what I meant in terms of the mean and median.
- IncRnd 9y agoThank you for the clarification.