Math..lacking subject in congress

[Berserker]

http://www.federalnewsradio.com/index.p ... id=2346644

This is part of the republican plan that has to do with federal worker pay. I want to pull your attention to one piece of it:

"Salaries for federal workers continue to outpace pay for their private-sector counterparts. Average wages in the federal civilian workforce ($74,311 in 2010) far eclipse the $49,777 median wages in private industry."

First off, there is a pretty good article on politifact.com about wages, but what I am here to point out is that they are comparing an average with a median. How did these guys pass 1st grade math class???

Lets say we pick 9 numbers: 5, 10, 15, 15, 15, 50, 55, 60, 70.

So an average of these 9 numbers is (5+10+15+15+15+50+55+60+70)/9 = 295/9 = 32.8
Now, lets look at the median of these numbers: It is simply the middle number when you line them all up in increasing order. In this case it is: 15

So now, 15 vs 34.4 is a very very big difference and as you can see it measures completely different things.

So this morons are now comparing the average salary of a fed with the median salary of private industry. IT IS A MEANINGLESS COMPARISON!

I call bullshit!

[MorGrendel]

I forget who said it, but you can prove anything with numbers.

[Berserker]

yeah, hehe. It's particularly true when it comes to statistics. Infamouse for charts and graphs that tell you what you want to hear ;)

[Fritz]

John Kyl just took a shit on my lawn and hold me to put it in my pipe and smoke it.

#NotIntendedAsAFactualStatement

[MorGrendel]

I was totally going to post a story about numbers and Kyl, but when you Google numbers and Kyl all you get are his top ten man/boy love sites.
#NotIntendedAsAFactualStatement