the median household represents more than one person. we all have to be a bit careful in this conversation with phrases like “the majority of americans”. for example, “americans” include a lot of penniless, incomeless kids, so individual measures would make things look worse than they are. 1/

but households also include important complexities. when adult kids don’t move out, for example, that skews household measures upward when in fact it may represent something undesirable. /fin