Great mathematical conclusions of our time

[davywavy]

I see that the National Union of Journalists are up in arms over the shocking statistic that 50% of people earn less than the average wage.

I can only conclude that a qualification in basic maths is not a requirement for becoming a Union activist these days. In fact, in the light of the above evidence I suspect that such a qualification would be a serious handicap.

Comments

[raggedhalo.livejournal.com]

I was thinking about this with regard to your statement that 50% of people are below average intelligence. I believe it to be flawed.

What you're saying only has meaning for the median -- the average that occurs in the middle of a range of numbers. For the mean (what people generally refer to as an average) and the mode, what your saying is misleading.


If nine people got given £10 and one person got given £1000, then on mode and median average, everyone got a tenner, but by the mean, everyone got £109. 90% of people thus got less than the average payout. See?

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

Yes, I do see that, although it seems that the NUJ doesn't. In the same way theat they draw aggrieved comparisons between the wages of the average journo and teacher. The temptation to write and say "That's because society values teachers more than you, you oafs" is very strong.

[raggedhalo.livejournal.com]

Particularly as teachers are underpaid. Weird.

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

I have a solution for that.

[raggedhalo.livejournal.com]

Dude, paying for immoral/illegal activity is your solution to everything!

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

Not true - paying people for moral activity is my solution.
People react well when behaviours are positively reinforced, and whether it be green taxes instead of plain old income taxes or a fee-based caning system for naughty children, I'd rather behaviour was modelled by puinishments being avoidable and rewards being easily reached, than by the ridiculous one-size fits all 'tell people what to do and then act all surprised when they don't act like that for no immediate reward' system we have now.

[(Anonymous)]

Well, quite. since no-one pays to be a journalist, the pay distribution about the mean isn't normal. Pretty much all data sets are like this. What is funny, is that journalists are using the fact that they are paid the national average wage (or seem to be, from my reading of the article) to justify being paid more. No mention of merit, or supply & demand, just badly presented statistics.

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

Since when have unions campaigned for more money on the basis of merit?

[(Anonymous)]

Good point, well made.

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

This is why the RMT has to resort to threats of screwing up the london economy to get their way with the Underground - not even they could keep a straight face if they tried claiming that their members deserved more cash due to merit or hard work.

[(Anonymous)]

Indeed. As I understand you have wisely observed yourself, those 'worthless imbecillic donkeypunchers' would probably starve if forced to tout their inferior malodorous service in an open market, hence the 'congestion charge' to twist the market sufficiently to make their inferior overpriced urine-soaked jalopies less uncompetetive, in comparison.

Of course, our 'Four legs good, two legs better' masters still swan round in their Ukrainian hooker strewn Daimlers.

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

Ken is doubling the cost of underground fares in January.
Apparently he things that there are far too many tourists in London and they make the place untidy, so he hopes to encourage them to go elsewhere.

[(Anonymous)]

And not because the quality of the service has doubled?

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

Today is the only day I have used the Underground this week that it hasn't been in some way broken, delayed, or otherwise massively delayed my journey.

[(Anonymous)]

You should write and congratulate them.