Something isn't adding up. Hmm. Averagee expenses vs income. Very fishy...

[S2007S]

Comparing avg and medians for values depending on wealth in the US is meaningless indeed. An example of why:

The skew is massive. The chart I managed to find with a 1 min search is for equity ownership, but charts for income and expenses would look quite similar. So the averages are pumped up whereas the median is way below.

Also it's a useful reminder for Americans that roughly speaking, 1% of them own half of society, whereas the other half is owned by another 9% of them. Why the remaining 90% put up with this is beyond me.

Why the rest of 90% put up with it?
No one cares, ever go out there and see what people want....

They want taco Tuesdays, $8 dollar Chai lattes.. tik tok challenges. there plug in EV, next new shiny iphone ...lemon pepper infused hummus from whole foods ...a dog a fish and parrot , instagram stories and the next new stanley neon green thermos everything is A O fu$King KAY!!!!

 

[zdreg]

GIGO (garbage in garbage out)

 

[misterkel]

Skewed by the government or just in general???

Skewed by the laws of mathematics. Income is, in general, zero bounded, but unbounded above.
Lognormal distribution.
The AVG is above the MED due to this effect. 1 Bill Gates plus 500 of me has a median of ME and an AVG north of 5 mil.

 

[piezoe]

making that the highest in history

Just wanted to make what I hope will be a helpful comment. With a positive inflation target built into the economy and a positive population growth rate something would be wrong if some of our economic yardsticks were not, from time to time, "the highest in history." Some of the measures that should continue to make new all time highs are nominal market indexes, credit card debt, corporate earnings, what we call the "national debt"*, etc. These numbers need to be adjusted for inflation and population if they are going to have any use beyond the evening news, political rallies, ET posts, and sales pitches. When we do reach these all time highs, including credit card debt, it at least signifies that the immediate past economy was fairly strong and we are not in a recession. What we look for are peaks in the numbers which indicate a change in the economic weather. In particular, I like peak corporate earnings as a warning sign. (Hard to have a recession without going through peak earnings.)
_________________
*It's really ersatz debt, not real debt. This ersatz debt has no choice other than to grow as long as the nation exists and its economy grows. It would do this even if we were to tax appropriately, which we no longer do. Rather than the nominal amount of ersatz debt, it's the rate of this debt's growth relative to growth of the economy that should be our concern. The national debt represents latent, future, outside, money expansion (LFOM expansion) How much of this LFOM expansion is realized will depend on future deficits and revenues. I only spend a little more time worrying about this than I do worrying about whether climate change will prevent Santa and his sleigh from arriving at my house.

 

[piezoe]

Does the consumer ever get tapped out ....

That's what causes what we call the credit cycle, isn't it?

 

[smallfil]

You only need to use your eyes for observation and a lick of common sense. When I go to the supermarket these days, there are few people shopping and like me, they buy only a few items. That should tell you what you need to know that most people are hard up. Was at the grocery store 2 days ago and my bill, $112.00 for a couple of items. I do not need some useless statistics to tell me what is happening to the US economy. So much for the BS inflation is low and getting lower numbers. And those cushy jobs for the fools that propagate their propaganda? Don't worry. Artificial intelligence will soon replace you because an AI robot can just as easily spew propaganda and you do not have to pay the AI robot any work benefits and it works hard 24/7 non-stop.

 

[mervyn]

skew or not, the underlying assumption is that the american society is a football shape, implying that the median income is more meaningful than the average. but demographics are changing, as the society becomes a pyramid shape, median is moving towards average.