Umm -- the definition of median is that half the range is higher and half is
lower. This means that if the median is $42,000, and there are 100 million
households, then 50 million households make more than $42k.

In fact the average income is higher, because it's pulled up by the very
wealthy households making millions per year, and that's not offset by
households making negative income (we don't allow individuals to rack up
millions in debt -- only corporations). The mathematical average might be
around $60k or even higher.

Seth

"Roger" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 20 Aug 2005 23:31:55 GMT, George Patterson
wrote:

Jay Honeck wrote:

If I could do it, anyone can do it.

Bull.
The median income in the U.S. today is about $50,000. *LOTS* of people in
the
States cannot afford flight training. Many more regard it as a complete
waste of
money, and for them, it probably would be.

Yes, I agree with you that there are a lot of people who can not
afford flight training and most of them are not in a position to
expect to do so later on. I'm excluding that portion of the
population/work force in college or just a year or two out.

What's the average? I would expect the average to be quite a bit
below the median as there are just a few very high incomes that skew
the median up. The last Census (2000) put the household median at
$41,994 so I'd expect it to be close to $50,000 now. There is a 2002
survey that put it a bit over $42,000

What is exasperating is trying to find the average rather than the
middle number or median. The US keeps household income compared to a
median. Canada keeps it according to average. Whether higher or lower
the average is a much more meaningful number than median. I would
*guess* there are far more households making less than the median that
there are making more.

After nearly an hour and a half trying to find the average US income I
have given up.

Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com

George Patterson
Give a person a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a person to
use the Internet and he won't bother you for weeks.