Posted on 09/05/2016 2:28:56 PM PDT by jazusamo
Mark Twain famously said that there were three kinds of lies — "lies, damned lies, and statistics." Since this is an election year, we can expect to hear plenty of all three kinds.
Even if the statistics themselves are absolutely accurate, the words that describe what they are measuring can be grossly misleading.
Household income statistics are an obvious example. When we hear about how much more income the top 20 percent of households make, compared to the bottom 20 percent of households, one key fact is usually left out. There are millions more people in the top 20 percent of households than in the bottom 20 percent of households.
The number of households is the same but the number of people in those households is very different. In 2002, there were 40 million people in the bottom 20 percent of households and 69 million people in the top 20 percent.
A little over half of the households in the bottom 20 percent have nobody working. You don't usually get a lot of income for doing nothing. In 2010, there were more people working full-time in the top 5 percent of households than in the bottom 20 percent.
Household income statistics can be very misleading in other ways. The number of people per household is different among different racial or ethnic groups, as well as from one income level to another, and it is different from one time period to another.
(Excerpt) Read more at creators.com ...
I don't really care about this rich/poor "problem".
I just want those 69 million to stop trying to have sex with our children and to stop taking our cars and A/C and borders and freedom to worship God away.
Well said, me too.
Thanks for the ping jaz. Dr. Sowell is an American treasure.
Most welcome FRiend, he sure is.
And my Dad always said: Figures don’t lie, but liars do figure :)
Yo, I’m in the top 20%, and I’m tea party through and through. You have to go to the top 10% or even 5% before you find a predominance of liberals.
I’m glad to know you!
Percentage of housholds or individuals...spread over 1 year or many years?
Both Asian and Hispanic immigrants have larger households that include 3 or 4 generations, aunts, uncles and cousins. Their household income is middle class even though their individual income may not be.
They need heat only one home in which they all live. They need have only 1 fridge, 1 range for all of them. Some of them take shifts in the same bed and thus don’t have to buy extra furniture.
Statistics can be manipulated anyway you want to make anyone look like deserving of pity or deserving of anger and jealousy.
He used to be an American treasure, until he became a anti-Trumper.
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