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Comment by Aardwolf | Hacker News Reader

"According to the Census Bureau, 64 million Americans currently live in the bottom quintile."

Given that there are 320 million Americans and 320/5 is 64, yeah, that statement is mathematically true...

Perhaps this should be understood as "You already know, or have been/will be convinced by the rest of this article, that in the current world, life for the bottom quintile of Americans is not great. To give some sense of perspective on just how many people suffer from the problems currently afflicting the bottom quintile, that's a full 64 million people whose lives are not great."?

I agree. As posted here, out of context, it sounds silly. But in context:

"For those in the bottom quintile, household income in inflation-adjusted dollars has dropped sharply, from $13,787 in 2000 to $11,651 in 2013. According to the Census Bureau, 64 million Americans currently live in the bottom quintile."

Seems like a perfectly reasonable statement.

You're right, but still funny that the author feels the need to invoke the Census Bureau to back up that piece of arithmetic.

It's strange wording. It would be a lot smoother stated like, "According to the Census Bureau, there are currently 320 million Americans, which means that 64 million live in the bottom quintile." They ultimately mean the same, but one version takes a lot more effort to decode.

Applause for your cherry picked quote to make yourself seem insightful.

The author, in the sentence before, pointed out: "For those in the bottom quintile, household income in inflation-adjusted dollars has dropped sharply, from $13,787 in 2000 to $11,651 in 2013"

He then calculates the concrete number to convey to the reader that for 64 million americans life has gotten harder.

But hey, you earned some internet points so thanks for the contribution.

In other news half the population lives below the median income.

Only if the amounts are unique around the median...

Correcting for that only makes is sound more ominous:

> In other news at least half the population lives below the median income.

Actually, no; at most half the population lives below the median income. Lots of people can earn as much as the median.

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