There are many mappings from the English word “average” to maths: arithmetic mean, median, geometric and harmonic means. We could be here all day. But “median

There are many mappings from the English word “average” to maths: arithmetic mean, median, geometric and harmonic means. We could be here all day. But “median is better than arithmetic mean for knowing if a lot of people are struggling” should be uncontroversial. We’ve rigged up a system that is a race to the bottom on wealth inequality. People have tried to run systems like this before and it always ends in tears. The interesting question isn’t how to parse the maths, or even if we have a bad, bad problem. The question is, can we and/or will we do something about it soon enough that Western civilization lasts for climate change or whatever to even matter. Because we’re on pace to get into tennis courts and guillotines before much if any of Manhattan is below the water line.