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The graph is deceptive, I think. The X axis is household income, which has not been linear with time, and likely declined during some of the recessions noted.
by kbob 16y ago
The graph is deceptive, I think. The X axis is household income, which has not been linear with time, and likely declined during some of the recessions noted. It makes no sense (to me) to use that as the independent variable.
- houseabsolute 16y agoIn addition to that flaw, the prices are nominal. Even if the real price were staying exactly the same, you'd still expect to see an positive slope on this line because of inflation. What a worthless visualization.
- Anon84 16y agoHousehold income (in principle) should also increase with inflation, so the positive slope should always be there. The significant part of the graph (if there is one) is that the slope is not 1 (which would mean that tuition and income are growing at the same pace) with periods where tuition grows significantly faster than income. There's also the added complication of comparing an average with a median. Averages are much more sensitive to outliers than medians (when Bill Gates enters a bar, the average income increases significantly, but the median remains the same).