No, I think you may have this backwards. The median really is unaffected by adding a zero (or ten zeros) to Bill's income. All that matters is that if half the

No, I think you may have this backwards. The median really is unaffected by adding a zero (or ten zeros) to Bill's income. All that matters is that if half the population makes less than Joe the plumber, and half more, then Joe is at the median. (There's a chance that if you shot Bill, then Joe's brother who earned 0.1c less would become the median, but this will be tiny, tiny effect.) The mean would however be affected by such things.