Income

[andrewducker]

The article on income and statistics here not only points out that I'm doing quite well for myself (being above both the median and the mean incomes), but points out how silly the 'average' really is - as it doesn't actually tell you very much that's useful/interesting.

makes it pretty clear that 2/3 of people earn below an average wage - because the richest people push the average up significantly.

I'm sure that I had something which told you what percentage of people in full time employment in the UK earned less than you - but I can't seem to find it now...

Comments

[bohemiancoast.livejournal.com]

But one of the other features of the income distribution is that the rich don't believe they're rich, even to quite a long way along the tail. I have a running joke about this with one of my friends; he says 'you're rich, you know', I say, well, we're comfortable. Nobody ever admits to being better off than 'comfortable'.

If you're off the right hand side of this graph, especially if you have no dependants, you're definitely well on the way to rich; the person earning twice what you do, with no dependants, is really impressively rich by the standards of a UK household-on-average-income, by the standards of the world, by the standards of history.

It was contemplating all of this that led me to conclude that we really ought to be saving some money. Because we might not always be in such a relatively fortunate position.