It has never interested me what other people are 'worth'; I'm much more interested in their talents, actions, or opinions.
However, it did interest me recently to read that the average Brit' (?) is worth £172,000, which I imagine is based on property prices.
I also read that 9% of Brits have no savings at all, a third of Brits have less than £600, and yet the average Brit' (whoever these average people are?) has savings of £6,757 (Building Societies, Banks, etc).
Low income families apparently have average savings of £95, and high income families of £62,885.
I do find these types of statistics a little puzzling. Who these 'average' people are, I'm not sure.
It is said that an economist/statistician is someone who believes that if you have one foot in boiling water, and the other in a bucket of ice, you should feel perfectly comfortable.
Still, I suppose that someone needs these figures, and someone has to produce them. Whether we're interested in them or not is another question. I'm hardly going to walk down the street wondering if the people around me have average savings of £6,757. Or perhaps now I will.
Interesting statistics. Mind you I was distracted by your use of the proper noun, "Brit" which I very much dislike and would never use to describe myself. I am Yorkshire first, English second and I do not wish to be lumped together with Scots or The Northern Irish. The Welsh are okay.
ReplyDeleteLaziness I'm afraid. Shortening to save typing a few extra letters.
DeleteI love that line about statisticians, and have tucked it away in my own head for future reference.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if those statistics need to be broken down a bit more. Speaking personally, I can say that our savings when we had five children in the house was much different than it is now, that we are at our retirement. Once they began to grow up, once college was done, once we went from establishing a business to owning an established business, things changed a great deal, financially speaking.
PS don't call me a 'Yank'.
I promise not to call you the 'Y' word.
DeleteI totally agree about savings with children at home. We only had three but they spent all our money for us. Now we spend it ourselves, but on the grandchildren.
It is hard to work out the averages from such vastly different extremes. Are they expressing the median, mode or mean values?
ReplyDeleteI suppose they count the amount of houses in Britain, estimate their value, then divide by the population. It's ONE way of doing things.
DeleteAverages without variances are meaningless.
ReplyDeleteInstant gratification, but no substance.
DeleteLow income families savings of £95. Last fortnight's pension?
ReplyDeleteThe previous time I saw these figures, it was 'less than £50'.
DeleteI now have taxis if I need to go anywhere and also use one to go to the hairdresser. His cost there and back is £8 (it is only just down the road) and I always give him £10. He tells me that the tips always go in a big jar and pay for their holiday each year.
ReplyDeleteGood for him. I expect a lot of people only live to a decent standard because of 'tips'.
DeleteWhenever I read anything about average earnings my mind goes straight to the footballers who "earn" £100,000+ a week.
ReplyDeleteMakes any sort of average completely pointless
Exactly. Take two people. One earns £100,000 per week, and the other £500 per week. Add them together, and divide by two to find their average earnings. i.e. £50,250. Logical n'est pas?
DeleteI wonder what our statistics are in the USA? I've heard that a scary percentage of people have no way of covering a $1000 emergency. Mind you, in my younger days I couldn't have, either. I'm grateful that I'm in the lower rungs of middle class now, which affords me some security. Those of us who are more fortunate should always remember the horrible stress of such financial insecurity.
ReplyDeleteGenerally, people in the UK are pretty well-off. They have a generous benefits system, and all health care is free. Rents are paid if you don't have the money, and in really dire circumstances they even get free food. Not bad really.
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