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"There are three kinds of lies:
lies, damned lies and statistics"
Mark Twain - quoting Benjamin Disraeli
Check this small village:
10 people are sick (no income),
80 are ordinary folk on $ 100 a day,
10 are politicos / mafia on $ 500 per day.
What's the `average' income?
You could legally use any of these three:-
Modal average (most common value) - $100
Median average (middle value - if any) - $ 100
Mean average (total divided by population) - $ 130
To see which one is `realistic', let's examine a new distribution - after the 10 politicos / mafiosi rob everything from the 80 working folk!
[by taxation or burglary]
I.e. - total income is the same, top income is higher, but most folk are broke.
Modal (most common value) - $ 0
Median (middle value) - not there
Mean (total divided by population) - $ 130
Yes,
`modal average' shows reality for most folk,
`mean average' is a double lie - it makes the poor seem better-off and the rich look lower-paid.
Which average do politicos and their media prefer -
- truthful mode, empty median, or lying mean?
Yup
the lying `mean'!
To justify taking more money from us low-paid folk, the politicians and their media also produce `feel-bad' statistics.
Like:-
"40% of children below-average at reading / writing"
"Over one-third of population `unfit' or `obese'"
"Many workers are `under-invested' for retirement"
"Nearly half of population are in `low-paid' jobs"
Why?
On the curve of `natural' distribution each of us gets
a higher or lower `score' for something or other.
I.e. at some time we'll each of us be to the left or right of center.
It just depends on what you decide to check:- weight - height - dexterity - sport - schooling - efficiency - poker - trivial pursuits - physical strength - IQ testing.
[Though 20% up or down is only a "good or bad day" on the road - or at the office - or at home - or at school.]
All populations - of grass, of rabbits, of tigers, and of us humans - follow that curve!
If we didn't - we wouldn't be alive!
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`Perceptions' |
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