this post was submitted on 12 Jun 2024
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Guys, stop trying to figure out the average. You guys should look for the mode (the most common income, not all income added and divided).
Edit: If anyone has the mode for american income, I'd love to hear it. I can't find it. Just the median and average.
the mode is probably 0.
e.g. there are plenty of people with exactly 0 income. there are few people with exactly another income.
Yup, Wikipedia says all exponential distributions have mode 0
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exponential_distribution
It might work a bit better if incomes were bucketed into 5k brackets before taking the mode. From there, I guess you can take the mean or median of all the incomes that comprise the bucket?
It would still always be the lowest bracket, because most people make little and few people make much.
If you look at the horizontal lines here you get 50k brackets:
https://fourpillarfreedom.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/ind_inc0-1.jpg
The first bracket is ~65% of the population, the second bracket ~25%, the third bracket ~5%
Maybe as a rule of thumb it would always be the lowest bracket for the US. I live in the Netherlands, and the mode here is as a rule of thumb about 79% of the average. This gives a mode of 44000 euros annually. So it doesn't have to be the lowest bracket.
Well, that's depressing.
That's not helpful though.