The Median Is The Message

The Median is a statistics which separates the higher 50% of a population from the lower 50% of the population. It is a real number, in that it does actually occur in a data population, whereas an average need not actually occur.
For example, in the series 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.8  the median is 3 - right in the middle, and the average is 1+2+3+4+5.8 = 15.8   divided by 5 = 3.16,   and 3.16 is nowhere to be seen in the original data.

On December 12, 2014, The Pew Research Center released a report:
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/12/12/racial-wealth-gaps-great-recession/
Wealth inequality has widened along racial, ethnic lines since end of Great Recession
By Rakesh Kochhar and Richard Fry

...Our analysis of Federal Reserve data does reveal a stark divide in the experiences of white, black and Hispanic households during the economic recovery. From 2010 to 2013, the median wealth of non-Hispanic white households increased from $138,600 to $141,900, or by 2.4%.

Meanwhile, the median wealth of non-Hispanic black households fell 33.7%, from $16,600 in 2010 to $11,000 in 2013. Among Hispanics, median wealth decreased by 14.3%, from $16,000 to $13,700. For all families — white, black and Hispanic — median wealth is still less than its pre-recession level...

 The 2013 figures are $141,900 for white households, $11,000 for black households, and $13,700 for hispanic households.

Fully 50% of white households are under the $141,900 figure, and fully 50% of black households are below the $11,000 figure, and fully 50% of hispanic households are below the $13,700 figure.

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'Tis The Season To Be Marley !

Scrooge and Marley's Ghost

My wife thinks I portrayed her as some sort of elitist snob - or, perhaps, a Scrooge asking whether the Poor Laws and the Workhouses were still in vigor -  in my postscript to the post Childermastide:
http://fatherdaughtertalk.blogspot.com/2013/12/childermastide.html

(postscript
My wife just suggested we go to Chicago for Christmas next year, 2014. She thought a moment, then added,"That is, if you don't mind having people begging all over the place... people with their families and kids on the street, right in front of the Drake Hotel... "

She let the thought trail off.

I can not believe this. Is this our country? )

I was shocked, because I thought I was merely having her speak the truth.
Of course, plain speaking is prone to all kinds of retorts, remarks, and controversy in these times.

She filled out some detail for me of the whole affair of her trip to Chicago two years ago in even more ghastly detail:

"I mean, Montag, you could look through the windows and see white people with their little girls all dressed up for Christmas tea, and right next to you outside there was a young black mother with three kids sitting on the sidewalk, holding a sign saying 'Help me feed my family.' "

She did not think I could take the Real Dickensian, the horrible irony of Wealth against Grinding Poverty. She thought I would start dreaming of the arrogance of the masters of the world who built the Tower of Babel. I might act up rough, and go all prophet, denouncing Dives taking tea while Lazarus starves.

Maybe I would act like that. On the other hand, I might just flip on the TV and catch me an episode of Duck Dynasty.

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