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These are not very informative statistics about the 'average' American. First of all, they only represent those who have at least some debt, with no reference to what percentage of the population that is. Secondly, they are means rather than medians, which are likely skewed by a long tail of people with extremely high debt (especially because they are ignoring the entire half of the distribution with no debt).

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[80% of Americans have some form of debt.][1] The average total wealth for all Americans is actually positive. [It's a little over $300,000.][2] But that number is really the skewed one, as it's significantly shifted by the 0.1% of the Americans [which own 90% of America's wealth][3].

As for the median, I can't seem to find that statistic, but I would argue that it's actually a less accurate picture than the average.

[1]: http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/abigail-wilkinson/pew-69... [2]: http://money.cnn.com/2014/06/11/news/economy/middle-class-we... [3]: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/nov/13/us-wealth-i...

[3] says the top 0.1% own "as much as the bottom 90%".

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