11/27/2006

myth 97

'Don't let averages fool you' I read this phrase in the Today paper this morning. What is Vasu Menon referring to? Property prices. He was saying that the high end prices are really shooting to the sky. Up 34% in the first quarter! Averages often hide the ugly truth. The PSI is an average over 3 or 6 hours. It does not want to show the real PSI in that particular hour so as not to frighten people. Another average that tries not to frighten people is the income of employees. It is said that the top 20% earns around $10K a month. It does not tell the top 3% what they are earning. Looking at the millionaires that we have, it is likely that most of them will be getting more than $100k a month. I wonder how organisations can pay employees so much in a month. These people must have the Midas touch. At the other extreme, the bottom 3% could be earning $300 a month. That is the real income gap that is not told. Or take the top 1% against the bottom 1% and find out what it is like.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dont anyhow qoute figures la u.

Only 10% of households earn 10k or more and this refers to total household income.

Not as if 1/5 of workers in singapore are getting 10k a month.

Chua Chin Leng aka redbean said...

hi anonymous,

agree the figures are not exactly right. this is not from the dept of statistics or an official report. it is quoted to elaborate the limitations of the law of averages and how averages can disguise the brutal truth.