General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: They once inhabited a vast swath of North America but their numbers have been greatly reduced [View all]Yupster
(14,308 posts)My problem is identifying the classes by their percentage of the mean income.
For example, let's say there is a horrible plague in America and the whole society collapses other than government statisticians. The government stats might say that the percentage of people below 66 % of the mean income remains unchanged even as everyone in the country starves. In the same way, if the mean income went from $ 50,000 to $ 125 during the plague, the person making $ 400 a year would still be considered upper class while his children starve.
Oppositely, if America, and only America was rained on by a rare metal costing a Billion an ounce, everyone in America might overnight be making a billion a year and live like a king. However if the mean wage moved up to $ 150 million a year, the person making $ 50 million would be considered lower class by the statistics even while they live like kings.
Somehow poverty needs to be measured on buying power and living conditions rather than just percentage of mean or median income.
My statistical rant for the day.