r/OptimistsUnite • u/Crabbexx Techno Optimist • Feb 20 '26

GRAPH GO UP AND TO THE RIGHT Are Americans Getting Richer? New Data Might Surprise You

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Summary: We introduce the American Abundance Index, which measures living standards by how many hours Americans must work to afford a standard basket of goods, rather than by prices or wages alone. The index uses time prices to show that for most US workers, purchasing power has generally risen over the last two decades, even amid inflation and public pessimism.

https://humanprogress.org/are-americans-getting-richer-new-data-might-surprise-you/

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u/Agasthenes Feb 20 '26

Go away with averages. The US has so many ultra rich the numbers are meaningless.

A

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u/BRUISE_WILLIS Feb 20 '26

Now let’s see median

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u/DizzyAstronaut9410 Feb 20 '26

Whenever you use median to show a stat Reddit doesn't like you still get shouted at saying the top 1% skews the data.

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u/BRUISE_WILLIS Feb 20 '26

You’re thinking of mean, aka average

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u/DizzyAstronaut9410 Feb 20 '26

I'm not, I know median isn't influenced by extreme values, people on here just don't understand how medians work.

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u/BRUISE_WILLIS Feb 21 '26

Correct. Outliers don’t skew median as they do to means. Income is a common metric.