At various times I'll pour over statistics available online as to wealth, income, poverty, etc. I'm very surprised at what the median household income is in the US (~$51k, I thought it would be higher). I'm also surprised at statistics on poverty in the US. Compared to all of recorded history, the poor in the US are doing pretty well - at least physically. (note: I'm NOT suggesting poverty is good or easy or that income inequality isn't a major issue in the US)
Mostly, I find what is normal (defined as one of the statistical averages) to be fascinating. After pondering this, I found Kevin O'Keefe's book The Average American. As with a lot of books that I read, this was part narrative and part non-fiction informative. The book chronicles Mr. O'Keefe's journey to define and find what and who the average American is.
Many of the tidbits on what is normal in the book are very interesting. At middle-age, I would have believed I eat a lot of peanut butter, but I'm nowhere near the national average (peanut butter has an overly prominent role in the book).
The book is definitely worth reading. His writing style is easy to follow and while it doesn't have the same narrative quality of, say, Bill Bryson his personal journey - both physical and mental - is very interesting. Part of my interest in the subject is due to the fear that being, or becoming, normal is equal with becoming boring. I think I'm wrong on that. However, I do believe there is significant overlap between the subset of the population that is normal and the subset that is boring. I will still say that being boring equates with a life not lived to its potential - at least.
In the book, Mr. O'Keefe defines a set of questions to qualify who is the average American. Some of the questions appear to be overly trivial, but it is his list. I do think there is one fatal flaw in his list in that some questions taken in combination are terribly exclusive. As example, the average American must live in the state they were born in and live within 100 miles of the ocean. Out of the stated 140 questions used, these two are very exclusive as 60% of the population lives within the state born in and 40% live by the ocean (source: NOAA). Taken randomly, these two questions out of the 140 remove ~76% of the population. Additionally, these two taken together mean that anyone born in Illinois, would not be normal despite the Illinois borders Lake Michigan, a large navigable waterway (the coasts are heavily populated due to historic reasons of trade and reliance on water which are less relevant now). He doesn't address what would happen if an individual was born in Connecticut, spent all but the last few years in Iowa, then moved back to Connecticut not to be close to "home" but because that was where the job was.
At one point in the book, he ascribes that perhaps the most ordinary American should not meet every criteria to remain normal as being too normal is not normal. But, this appears to be a passing idea that is not ultimately used.
In the end, the author must whittle down to his version of the average American somehow and the way he gets there is terribly interesting despite the flaws. I can't help but wonder what would happen if Mr. O'Keefe were to bump into Sarah Vowell on the road and the two would have become a traveling American Reese's Peanut Butter Cups (hmmmm, peanut butter again).
One very interesting bit of information from the book was a vignette about a NY Times magazine written by Camille Sweeney that found on interviewing people who made around the median income, all had recently bought a new car, a boat, a widescreen TV, a vacation cottage, a pool, or had a pricey family vacation. Additionally, even most of the poor had some "fun money." No matter where someone is in the income spectrum, there appears to be something left over for what is beyond the needs. Said another way, everyone seems to live near their means. Or, more money doesn't buy more happiness (but I bet it makes being miserable more fun).
In the end, the personal narrative makes any flaw in methodology an academic exercise. After finishing the book, I excitedly went to the web site listed in the book only to find it a thin site of praise for the book. I was hoping for more in depth statistics on his questions. This lead me to the web site for the Census Bureau which is endlessly filled with easily available information on Americans! Many of these data are easy to browse on subsequent pages on the Bureau's Web Site. How could I have not known this was there?
What I was most missing from the book and web site, was a discrete and complete list of all 140 questions he used for his search. I would have loved if his web site would have these in quiz format to define the users "averageness" based on the questions. I found other sites that do this based on a different set of questions, but after investing time in the book, it wasn't what I was looking for.
Below is a set of questions I was able to glean from the book. Since this is my interpretation of his list, I don't know if this is plagerism or not. Very few people ever read this blog, so I won't worry about such things... Besides, even with this, how the author got to the questions is worth the read.
Despite the exclusivity of some of the questions, assign one point for each question that agrees with the norm. The O'Keefe Average Quotient (OAQ) can then be calculated by dividing the number of points by the total number I could define from the list (139). The closer the value is to one, the more normal the tester is:
- US or DC citizen
- Lived in the same home for five years
- Resident of native state
- Resides in nation's average community (ambiguous)
- Family is extremely or very important
- High school graduate
- In paid labor force or working towards it
- At least one married couple in the home
- Has offspring
- Regularly in bed before midnight
- Believes in God
- Is Christian
- Is respectful of others religions
- Attends church at least once a month
- Religion is very important in own life
- Is respectful of all races
- Annual movie-goer
- Lives in owner-occupied home
- Resides in one house (one unit - detached)
- Has direct access to one or two motor vehicles
- Home has garage or carport
- Has a driver's license
- Has two to four people residing in the home
- Regularly wears seat belt
- Household has discretionary income
- Is in full-time labor force or retired from it
- Has at least one pet
- Is not trying to be nationally known
- Is satisfied with the way things are going in personal life
- Supports current abortion laws
- Believes abortion is wrong
- Supports stricter enforcement of environmental laws
- Describes self as very or fairly happy
- Believes money can't buy happiness
- Has home valued between $100k and $300k
- Participates in recycling
- Has fired a gun
- Believes in the right to bear arms
- Is against the public use of semi-automatic weapons
- Is in favor of registration or waiting lists for gun owners
- Believes gambling is an acceptable entertainment choice
- Has gambled money on at least one game of chance in the last year
- Household has craft or hobby
- Donates money to charity
- Gives time to charity annually
- Has net worth between $30k and $300k
- Lives where there is at least 0.1" of snow annually
- Lives where average annual temperature is between 45 and 65 degrees F
- Is between 18 and 53 years old
- Spends most time indoors
- Gets moderate exercise weekly
- Has health insurance
- Walks under own power
- Weighs 135 to 205 pounds
- Lives in urbanized or suburban area
- Resides on zero to 2 acres
- Has a private lawn
- Supports US troops
- Drinks soda
- Drinks coffee (regularly or occasionally)
- Has an electric coffee maker
- Eats bread weekly
- Believes music can bring family closer together (ambiguous)
- Has a stereo in the home
- Wears glasses and/or contacts to correct vision
- Has all five senses
- Can read English
- Can speak English fluently
- Community mirrors racial/ethnic make-up of the nation (ambiguous)
- Life impacted by drugs or alcohol
- Opposes legalization of marijuana for recreational use
- Supports use of pot for medicine
- Has visited the ocean
- Lives within 100 miles of the ocean
- Lives in the Eastern Time Zone (guess this means some people are sometimes normal)
- Has consumed alcohol
- Considers homosexuality an acceptable lifestyle
- Has a color TV (do they make black and white anymore?)
- Has cable (presumably this means satellite as well?)
- Has DVD and/or VCR
- Commonly watches TV daily
- Household's per capita income is between $15k and $75k
- Primary weekday destination is within 5 miles of home (coming from the midwest, I'm not sure I believe this)
- Primary mode of transportation is the privately owned motor vehicle
- Home has a porch/deck/patio/etc.
- Has outdoor grill at home
- Eats meat (red and white)
- Has one to three registered voters in the household
- Lives on a local road
- Household files federal income taxes
- Household files state income taxes
- Pays a sales tax
- Eats ice cream at least once a month
- Lives within two miles of a public park
- Uses recreational facilities annually
- Chief local politician is a Democrat
- Local governing council is mostly Democratic
- Reads local newspaper daily
- Has read or started to read one book within the last year
- Uses a landline phone
- Uses mobile phone on a regular basis
- Home is within range of cell service
- Believes friends are extremely or very important
- Home has a paved parking area to his garage or carport
- Favorite way to spend the evening is in the home
- Home is between 10 and 50 years old
- Home has between 4 and 6 living purpose rooms
- Grew up within 50 miles of current home
- Has a kitchen
- Has a clothes washer
- Has a clothes dryer
- Has an automatic dishwasher
- Has at least one full bathroom
- Brushes teeth daily
- Visits the dentist annually
- Showers daily
- Has a Christmas tree every year
- Has a credit card
- Has an ATM card
- Has household credit card debt
- Uses the internet
- Has played computer or video games in the last year
- Is a football fan
- Is a baseball fan
- Political viewpoints are a 3, 4 or 5 on a 7-point scale
- Owns jeans
- Has done financially better than parents
- Has at least one living parent
- Has at least one living sibling
- Represented by at least one Democratic US Senator
- Represented by a Republican House member
- Takes annual vacation time
- Has a listed phone number
- Eats at McDonald's annually
- Lives within three miles of a McDonald's
- Lives within 20 minutes of a Wal-Mart
- Shops at Walmart annually
- Is between 5'3" and 5'10.5"
- Lives in the middle majority of the nation's populated areas (ambiguous)
- Note: There is supposed to be 140, but something was lost in Kansas...read the book and that will make sense.
My OAQ is 0.762. I am not sure if that makes me normal. I hope it doesn't make me boring.
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