32 Comments

There is a bit of a misleading headline (by one of the news outlets) in that it is made to seem like multiple Wharton students think the average US work makes $800,000. In fact, it is just one student. Lack of clarity as you point out. Maybe the question was phrased with ambiguity. And the fact that many Wharton students do not know what the average income is depends on what level of education they are at. Are these freshmen? If so, we should give them a break. If they are in their last throes of an MBA degree, they should know better. I am having a difficult time feigning concern or outrage on this one....

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This is excellent. Far from missing something, you are absolutely into something. This is the reason why I am (nearly) off Twitter and why I no longer watch or even subscribe to cable TV. I grew up on “too good to check” (which I always thought was a British journalism phrase!) and you are correct that social media and the synthetic outrage it engenders is enticing us all into opting out of probing things if they already satisfy our prejudices. What results is a real problem - a kind of societal lack of intellectual rigor and erosion of fairness in our thinking.

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You make som great points here. It jibes with this article I read yesterday in The Week

https://theweek.com/us/1009328/americas-hyperbole-addiction-is-the-worst-thing-ever

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This was great, Bill. I suspect you will receive a reply from the professor in the not-too-distant future.

By the way, you create some catchy headlines as they present an intriguing “hook”….thank!

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Californians have been moving to Idaho for years, but now we have been "discovered" by the rest of the country, too. It's not necessarily a good thing.

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When our news comes from a FB “curated” feed, twitter or, really, any type of SOCIAL media we get what we deserve.

Cable news started us off with the need to fill a 24/7 news hole. It was OK when Ted had his idea because he was the only one. In fact, I did some international travel and it was especially great to have an English language news channel to watch in hotels. Then the other networks jumped on board.

At least when print newspapers were a primary source you could tell the NYT or USA Today from the sensational rags, if for no other reason than where they were placed in store; the rags all purchased space in the checkout line. It was easier to recognize fact checked news because there were real editors separate from advertising and circulation.

Now, anyone can have a website that looks legitimate.

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As a university professor, I find publicly humiliating students to be the egregious act here, not the $800,000 response. Yes, I complain about students with my colleagues but I would never tweet something that belittles them on social media.

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Manufactured outrage is indeed prevalent in today's "everyone's a publisher" world.

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I think your missing an important point. Reacting to one end of a collection of data and tainting anything else it may contain is exactly how information gets misconstrued.

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Not to mention the nationality makeup of those polled. Are they all American students? Perhaps the $800K was an international student whose cultural understanding of America is based on TV families. That number would be fairly accurate if you thought Americans lived like “Modern Family”

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founding

Your observations are spot on: It's like the statistic that most accidents happen within five miles of your home. I remember thinking, "Isn't that where I spend most of my time, so... duh?" Our 24/7 news cycle demands sometimes lead to content that doesn't contain much of anything.

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$745k? ? ? - I thought I was OK but I’m not in that group and I’d bet not many of us are!

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I think it is more a matter of perception. My husband is retired; I work because I want to. My income is less than 6 figures. We have a net worth a little above the average which you noted. Now, knowing this, I feel like I have the world by tail. I have everything I could ever want, give away a good amount of money for no reason. My husband, on the other hand, thinks we could be living under a bridge any time now. :-). My guess would be that a lot of the professor's noted results were likely indicative of the fact that the students haven't lived long enough to have an experienced perception of real life yet.

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Even the $745,000 is a bit misleading as an average because net worth would figure in all the equity on people’s homes, the median according to the link is $141,000, so half the population below and half above that amount, not as “shocking” , I agree the story here should be a Wharton professor who themselves didn’t break this down and somewhat shamed her own students

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What is income inequality

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Today’s Wharton newsletter: Scary at face value but reminds me of a former president’s lack of knowledge of a pair of socks and Rainman’s answer to: Doctor:

Ray, do you know how much a candy bar costs?

Raymond:

'Bout a hundred dollars.

Doctor:

Do you know how much one of those new compact cars costs?

Raymond:

'Bout a hundred dollars

Some people’s interests lie elsewhere due to upbringing, noblesse oblige or social psychopathy;Some of the absurdly wealthy have no clue; other’s brains are simply wired differently.

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