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When you find the term "average wage" in an article about economy with upbeat title, stop reading right there. Use your time for a more productive purpose or ju
by pauljurczak 7y ago
When you find the term "average wage" in an article about economy with upbeat title, stop reading right there. Use your time for a more productive purpose or just kick back. Any measure, which ignores huge economic disparity is mostly a piece of propaganda. In a group of 10 people with one earning $10M and the rest getting less than minimum wage, everyone is a millionaire on average.
Unfortunately, it is so rare to see median or other asymmetric distribution sensitive concepts used in articles about economy.
- sjg007 7y agoWhile your statement about economic disparity is true you should look at the averages between tech and finance. I would expect finance to be higher and why aren''t they? Are bonuses excluded? Or is this a real trend.
- pauljurczak 7y agoAverage across the whole industry is pretty much meaningless, because it's skewed to unknown degree by outlying top management compensation. Averages for the same profession in different industries, e.g. software engineer in financial sector vs. software engineer in FAANG or similar, make more sense to me.
- sjg007 7y agoObviously. But you could even argue that the averages are even since the outliers are similar. But yes, let's pontificate in specifics because that is fruitful.
- TheSpiceIsLife 7y agoAn average takes a whole lot of data and compresses it in to one number. Why not present more of the data so we can understand the specifics?
- pauljurczak 7y agothe outliers are similar We know very little about outliers. Assuming that they are similar may lead to grossly wrong conclusions.
- WJW 7y agoA minor aside, but what a particular way to measure millionaire-ness. Surely you need to own a million or more to be a millionaire, not "merely" earn that sum on a yearly basis? So many people I know live paycheck to paycheck and that seems to only marginally decrease as wages go up. People just start buying more expensive shit.
- croon 7y agoIf you make make a million a year and don't have a million saved in two, you're doing everything wrong.
- pauljurczak 7y agoYou are right about the net worth. "Everyone is earning a million on average" - is technically more correct. You are also right on human behavior. Unfortunately, most people have no practical limit on buying expensive shit when their income increases. Thank you Madison Avenue!
- astura 7y agoSomeone who has a net worth [net worth = sum of assets minus sum of liabilities] of at least a million dollars is a millionaire.