Average American Family Income Declines

[raccoon]

By MARTIN CRUTSINGER, AP Economics Writer

WASHINGTON - The average income of American families, after adjusting for inflation, declined by 2.3 percent in 2004 compared to 2001 while their net worth rose but at a slower pace.

The Federal Reserve reported Thursday that the drop in inflation-adjusted incomes left the average family income at $70,700 in 2004. The median, or point where half the families earned more and half less, did rise slightly in 2004 after adjusting for inflation to $43,200, up 1.6 percent from the 2001 level.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060223/ap_on_bi_ge/family_finances

OK, I'm not a mathematician or a statistician or anything.

But the average family income, seems to me, is MEANINGLESS. My guess is at least half the people I know have an income far below that.

It's like the joke about if Bill Gates walks into a bar, the average net worth of everybody in the bar jumps to several billion.

[unblock]

1. $43,200 is the median (half above, half below); $70,700 is the mean

the $43,200 figure is the midpoint, half of all families make less, half of all families make more.

the $70,700 is the mean, just the total income divided by the number of families. the fact that the numbers are fairly far apart gives you a hint as to how skewed the distribution of incomes among families is.

[Gormy Cuss]

3. And in fact the mean for the top 10%

according to the same Federal Reserve report is over 300K while the median for that group is only ~185K.
That suggests that the top incomes are quite high.

[YOY]

2. Nail on the head

Rich get richer...everyone else gets fucked. At least it looks like America just may be waking up.