[twoodfin]

Median isn’t the average and Matt was computing the average household Amazon spend.

[raw_anon_1111]

The mean is almost always a meaningless statistics. It only takes a few people to buy stuff like this to skew it.

http://www.sellersprite.com/en/blog/most-expensive-thing-on-...

[twoodfin]

Be that as it may, the point at issue was the Amazon spending of the average US household. I’m not sure what point relevant to the discussion you’re trying to make, other than reflexively arguing with any use of means in economic analysis. OK, sure, tell Matt Stoller.

[cyberax]

It actually is for the normal distribution.

[bandrami]

Household income is not normally distributed. In fact nothing with a hard zero can be normally distributed.

[twoodfin]

Sure, but I’m certain US household income is not normally distributed, and I’d bet all the money in my pockets that US household Amazon spend isn’t normally distributed, either.