Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Median or mode, Wealth & Poverty

[Diane Margolis (diane]

Sharon,
The mode is the value with the greatest frequency.  The bell curve is
special because its mode, median, and mean overlap in the center and because
the curve to the right of  (or above) the center has the same slope as the
curve to the left of the center.  Thus in the sequence  23333457889 the mode
is 3; the median is 4 and the mean is 5 and this sequence does not form a
bell curve.

Diane, a retired prof. of sociology who lives in Cambridge Cohousing
----- Original Message -----
From: "Sharon Villines" <sharon [at] sharonvillines.com>
To: <cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org>
Sent: Monday, April 07, 2003 1:08 PM
Subject: Re: [C-L]_Median or mode, Wealth & Poverty


>
> On 4/02/2003 7:40 PM, "Forbes Jan" <jan.forbes [at] dhhs.tas.gov.au> wrote:
>
> > The median is the middle value of a list of values.  The peak of the
bell
> > curve, where most of the values fall, is the mode.
> >
> > Which one you decide to use depends on things like the nature of the
> > distribution and what you are using it for.  If it is skewed
distribution
> > the median is usually preferred over the mean.  If in doubt about the
nature
> > of the distribution, it is helpful to look at mean, media and mode as
well
> > as the standard deviation.
>
> Thanks for the correction. Sorry to confuse people.
>
> I still haven't located the mode but have a bit more info from a Sociology
> text that I'm reading:
>
> Wealth is determined by one's net assets -- the monetary value of
everything
> one owns minus one's debts. Wealth is the accumulation of savings or
> investments. 1/3 of the US population has no net worth or wealth -- which
> means they live from day to day. No income today, no food today.
>
> Wealth in the United States is concentrated in the upper 10% of the
> population which controls 86% of the nation's wealth. The top 1% owns more
> than the bottom 90%. This concentration is greater than in any other
> industrialized nation and has increased rapidly since the 1980s (during
> Reagan's tenure as president, 1981-1989). The concentration of wealth in
the
> US is greater than at any time since 1929.
>
> The World Bank defines poverty as an income of less than $1 a day per
> person. By this definition poverty has declined since 1987 from 29% to
26%,
> but most of this is decline in Asia. The US Federal poverty line is
$16,660
> for a family of four. In 1998 12.7% of the population was living below
this
> line.
>
> This figure is determined by using the Department of Agriculture's dietary
> requirements to calculate a low-cost food budget and multiplying this by 3
> assuming that a household spends approximately 1/3 of its budget on food.
>
> The "culture of poverty" is largely a myth. Only 22% of people living in
> poverty one year will be in poverty the next. The largest causes of
poverty
> are temporary crises with under 5% living in poverty for more than two
years
> at a time. 41% of those living in poverty are working at least full time.
> 18% of the entire workforce living in poverty.
>
> But since most of us couldn't imagine living on $4,140 (1/4 of $16,660) --
> even living on an income of twice that would be difficult -- if cohousing
is
> going to extend to the poor, it will have to have capital investment from
> the wealthy, directly or by taxation in the form of government grants.
>
> Sharon
> --
> Sharon Villines
> Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC
> http://www.takomavillage.org
>
>
>
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