[kenberg]

mycroft, on 2013-June-18, 16:42, said:

My guess is like awm's: a family of three is quite likely to be one adult and two children or a newly married (and newly-earning) couple. Four is much less likely to be one adult and three children. The former is more likely to stay as three and stay in the wage bracket than the latter - and several, especially high-wage-earning professionals, tend to stop at two children. So they don't tend to migrate to "family of 5".

Of course all of this is ad fundamentum extractum.

I am inclined to guess along these lines as well. Actually, I mentioned in the OP that this was Becky's (my wife's) guess as well. Adam had a whole string, and in combo they may well explain it. Actually most everyone who has made a ny guess seems to guess along these lines.

Again, the part that really stunned me was the $108K, or $105K or whatever. Even with all of the explanations. Just the sheer amoun boggles my mind. But then also I still am amazed that the median household income (no restrictins, is around 65K and the four person one is 105 K. I had thought the overall median to be around 60, so 68 does not amaze me. I would expect there to be variations with houshold size but really I would have expected the biggest variation to be from 2 to 3. My wife and I are a household of two. It's just different from when I first became a household of three, carting diapers to the laundromat on my bicycle because we had neither a washer nor a car. Oh to be young again, but there were issues.

Anyway, if I am stunned I am stunned. But I will perhaps broaden my comments later.

[awm]

Statistically, there are about 45 million US children and about 20 million of them are in single-parent homes. This is a big increase over years ago. I think your intuition about the household sizes may not be fully taking this into account... a pretty significant number of "family of twos" are one parent with one kid, probably a lower combined income than the "two young people with baby." Also, the "two young people" may not be so young any more... I know a lot of people in their early thirties having their first kid. Marriage and kids come later now than they did years ago, especially for the more educated class.

[mike777]

speaking of interesting data:


1)In the USA more whites are dying than being born.
2)Most children under the age of 5 are nonwhite.

[PassedOut]

mike777, on 2013-June-18, 21:14, said:

speaking of interesting data:

1)In the USA more whites are dying than being born.
2)Most children under the age of 5 are nonwhite.

Who cares?

I'm of Norwegian descent and my wife Constance is Danish/German. But our only grandchild so far is "nonwhite" as is Constance's brother's daughter.

[y66]

Maybe Ezra Klein and his pals can shed some light on what accounts for the difference between household median income and median income for families of 4 and why reporters are not as astounded as some professional statisticians by the $108,915 figure.

They are taking questions now at Ask the wonks!

Not saying water cooler people are not wonks!

[kenberg]

Some of my best friends are wonks. Or wanks. or something.

I started work early this morning, I'm just finishing now, and I leave even earlier tomorrow. Don't expect coherence for a while.

My wife says that it keeps me young. Or gone. Or something.

[Winstonm]

kenberg, on 2013-June-19, 19:25, said:

Some of my best friends are wonks. Or wanks. or something.

I started work early this morning, I'm just finishing now, and I leave even earlier tomorrow. Don't expect coherence for a while.

My wife says that it keeps me young. Or gone. Or something.

Wank is past tense, I think

[kenberg]

Winstonm, on 2013-June-20, 06:48, said:

Wank is past tense, I think

Or something

[jdeegan]

mike777, on 2013-June-18, 21:14, said:

speaking of interesting data:


1)In the USA more whites are dying than being born.
2)Most children under the age of 5 are nonwhite.

White man = devil