Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics. Of course, I would bet that median per capita income, or median household income, is substantially lower in Mississippi than

Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics. Of course, I would bet that median per capita income, or median household income, is substantially lower in Mississippi than in most of the EU15 (The first 15 members). Median household income in Mississippi is ~$29K. see http://crookedtimber.org/2005/06/03/its-the-median-stupid/ http://crookedtimber.org/2005/06/03/its-the-median-stupid/ for some discussion of this topic Also, I would bet that the deprivation index for Mississippi [1] would be higher than for most of the countries he cites, especially for the lowest quartiles. [1] Deprivation index: add up the number of these you can't afford. Adequate home heating, an annual holiday, new furniture to replace worn-out items, a meal with meat every second day, new clothes, the wherewithal to entertain guests at home. The worst off of the countries he cites, Italy[2], has a top quartile deprivation index of 0.5, median quartiles of ~0.6-0.7 (estimating from chart0 and bottom quartile of 2.0. I doubt that Mississippians are better off than that. [2] See http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/pubdocs/2008/52/en/1/EF0852EN.pdf http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/pubdocs/2008/52/en/1/EF0852EN...