Most people think that most Americans are richer than Canadians because that was true for most of history, but that ended a decade ago. The Great Recession of 2008 hurt Americans more than Canadians and the median income in Canada…
Blog Archives
Census updates median income data
There is a new Census Bureau map showing the median annual household income (averaged over the past five years) shows where America is richer and what areas are poorer. [Source: U.S. Census Bureau] It is particularly interesting to see the…
Posted in Medianism
Marijuana decriminalization vs legalization
Americans tend to be conservatives in the sense that we tend to be risk averse. We don’t want to change our system unless there is a really good reason. In the case of our current policy towards marijuana, there is…
Posted in Medianism
Great article about replacing GDP
David Leonhardt has a great new article about measuring economic progress. This graph shows the main problem with GDP. It has become completely divorced from the reality for 90% of Americans: By The New York Times | Source: Thomas Piketty, Emmanuel…
Posted in MELI & Econ Stats
Income growth for different age groups in America
The distribution of income deserves more attention. One reason why college seems less affordable is that average real wages for young people have fallen since the 1970s whereas tuition has risen. A lot. Of course, the average college student doesn’t…
Posted in MELI & Econ Stats
New bill would require better measures of median income (plus a lot more)
GDP is a measure of total income in a country. For at least the two decades before 1980, American median income grew about as fast as GDP and Americans below the median income saw faster growth than Americans who were…
Posted in Inequality, Medianism
Beer Companies Don’t Care About The Median Drinker
Updated December 20, 2018 Mark Kleiman has done some of the most insightful policy analysis of illegal drugs available. He argues that home grown marijuana should be legal (and polls show that the majority of Americans have agreed for some…
