Not a lie, there is what is true and then there is truth. If we round it off the world is 50/50 men and women. If we eliminate statistical outliers then we could say that the average “man” has two testicles and the average “woman” has zero. If we aggregate the data we can then say truthfully that based on that data, the average human regardless of gender has 1 testicle. Is it correct? My experience says no. But- is it a lie? No. It is truth. A truth, not THE truth, but nothing I said is false. You assume that to be true something must reflect reality. If one believes in science this is not necessarily the case- many things that occur at sizes or speeds or in spectrums we can’t perceive do not act as we intuitively believe or observe them to.
This is why school, and educating oneself outside of school, are so important. Averages are matters of convenience and classification. An average will always fall within the parameters we set for it based on the type of average we perform and the data we consider and then any modifications or adjustments we apply etc.
for example- if we consider earnings- if we were to use the average earnings in an industry full of contractors, a salaried employee might make $40,000 a year and a contractor might get $70,000 for the same job- but a contractor does not get benefits, a contractor does not have certain taxes withheld. So at the end of a year the take home pay for a contractor may be higher or lower than a salary employee despite them earning $70k vs $40k- but if there are 100,000 workers in that field and 80,000 are contractors- the average salary will be listed higher than $40k but no salaried employees will make that much and contractors may take home much more or much less than $40k.
Now, teachers. We have to consider a few things. Firstly, who do we include as a “high school teacher?” Is it anyone that teaches at a high school? Is it anyone who teaches high school level classes or classes that count towards high school acreditaron?
Most importantly- we did NOT specify PUBLIC high school teachers. Private school teachers can make much more money than public school teachers. One also must understand that the general perception or argument that teachers are not well paid is itself “truth but not true.” Well paid is relative. “I don’t make enough to live…” well… let’s look at that.
If you live in tumble weed Nebraska and make $40,000 a year you’re likely doing ok financially. You aren’t rich but you probably can own a home and a car and live middle class. If you live in Beverly Hills, Much of the SF Bay Area, much of the north east like NYC or many areas of Connecticut, if you live in Miami or Honolulu etc etc. $40k probably isn’t enough to have much at all- maybe barely enough to survive and not be homeless if that. So, in a place with $3 million dollar homes you may find a school. And around those homes may be $1.5 million dollar homes. So a teacher teaching at that school either is likely commuting hours a day or would need to make enough to live in the area.
So in “wealthier” areas teachers, even public school teachers, can make $60,70,80 thousand dollars maybe more a year- but it can still be not enough to have a home or afford a middle class standard of living.
What’s more, when we talk about not being paid a lot- a teacher can have after school responsibilities like meetings, classes, detention duty, programs, clean up, prep, tutoring, conferences, admin work, grading papers etc. they often need supplies for their classes and curriculums they must buy off school hours. A teacher Can work as much as a high powered lawyer or engineer, maybe 80-100 hours a week or more. If we base salary on a 40 hour work week, $40k for 40 hours a week isn’t terrible in general. If you are working 100 hours a week for $40k you are basically not making minimum wage by the hour.
Then you factor in the supplies and other things teachers often must pay for themselves and other things that aren’t covered by their schools but are part of the job and we can paint a picture that even many “highly paid” teachers don’t get paid a lot. Especially when you compare a teacher with 4.6.8+ years of schooling working the hours they do and putting in the effort so many do to other jobs where similar circumstances and requirements exist.
So it isn’t always that teachers are paid some small amount- teachers, like many jobs, can be paid a relatively large amount that is small or insufficient either due to the work requirements or the area in which their job requires that they work- or both as well as other factors.
You also have to understand that America is not all exactly like where you live. That said, most of the population of the country lives in urban centers and along the coasts. Coincidentally these areas often have higher salaries and higher cost of living, and having more people concentrated in a given area, they tend to also have more teachers. Meaning that a national average for such things will usually skew because so many people live in higher cost of living areas where higher income doesn’t translate into higher quality of life. In much of the country you can still own a home making $40k a year-
Especially before covid transplants and related factors warped the markets. If you double that to $80k you still would have trouble or find it impossible to buy a home in NYC or the SF bay. People making $120k+ in those areas have trouble or just can’t afford a home. Maybe a small condo or twin house. Maybe.
So you could be living in bumbleville making $60k living in a 2500,3500+ sq ft house that is yours, eating hardy home cooked meals and doing well, and someone in “big city USA” making $120k lives with their parents or 4 roommates in a rental and doesn’t own a car because it can’t fit into their budget. Hence average salaries tend to be very misleading,
Especially when don’t nationally. When your single person dwelling is $3,000 a month in rent, $36,000 of your income automatically goes to housing compared to a place where your rent might be $1000 or less and a mortgage can be close to that. Transportation costs for city commuters can easily exceed $300 a month even without a car- and having a base model sub compact car can cost $1000 a month or more in a city. So a car and rent alone would cost you close to $50k a year- meaning you need to make at least $60k a year if you want to have even $1000 a month to eat and see the doctor and save and maybe… live life or have a family?
And if you have kids the child care is often over $1000 a month too…. So just the things that would let you work like a car and child care and a house are already potentially as much as $70k alone in our hypothetical city. Meaning if you made $86,000 you’d still be struggling to get by on the $16,000 a year left for clothes and hygiene products and food and everything and anything else you need or want not including savings and retirement, phone bill, internet, medical care and insurance…
So I’m that regard even $86,000 can be “not that much” to expect a person to have even one child or dependent and live a “normal adult life” let alone have may money to enjoy your life, travel, have things you want, etc.
But…. We can also make another argument about teachers pay. If a teacher were laid a salary of $40,000 for the school year- it varies by school- some schools have lots of work during breaks and others have some and others- have none. Meaning a teacher CAN be off 4-6 months out of a year. If we pick 6 to make it easy- a teacher working 6 months and a salary of $40k would actually be getting $80k in theory if the salary was based on the entire year and not just the school year. In that sense $40k would be pretty healthy for working half the year. Of course asides the fact many teachers still work at least part of some breaks, also remember most teachers average more than 40 hours. So if you are working 80 hour weeks and working half the year you are still putting in
effectively the same number of hours as a “full time” “year round” employee who works 40 hours a week on salary. Meaning that $40k would be much less impressive. But it depends. On the teacher, the school. Not every teacher puts in a billion hours and buys things out of their own pocket and has to stress over money. It’s very common- but that isn’t going to be every single teachers experience. This is where we face the challenge of making broad group based statements. “Retail work is low paid…” well- several places were paying $15-20 an hour starting for entry retail jobs when minimum wage was $5-7 an hour.
Some retail district managers make $50k or less a year and some retail places pay store managers $70-90k a year or more.
A generic job like “software developer” can pay $30k or less a year or over $200k a year. Depends on who you work for and where and other factors.
So is the average high school teacher in America making $80k? Sure. By some average using some set of data and assumptions and such. I’d say that is 100% true. Are most teachers actually making that much? If you looked at the pay stubs for you local highschool would they show that much? Probably not- but depends on where you live and other factors.
Data doesn’t lie, or at least accurate data. Data alone is useless. Let me tell you a story. In WW2 they were losing lots of bombers. They tracked it and saw that bombers coming back were shot up mostly around certain areas. A pattern of areas that bombers seemed to get shot in.
It was inferred that because bombers seemed to take the heaviest damage in those areas, they’d reinforce those areas. So they did. And you know what? It didn’t help. Arguably it made things worse. But why? Was the data wrong? Did it lie? No. Those were the places the bombers coming back were hardest hit. But what was the problem? The problem was the bombers that WEREN’T coming back. They wanted to have fewer losses. See the truth of the matter was that the areas they marked were heavily hit often- but those areas seldom caused a lost bomber- the fact so many bombers made it back with damage to those areas can indicate that. They needed to study where the bombers that DIDNT come back had been damaged to see what areas being damaged were causing losses.
The data was correct- those areas got hit a lot. The theory was correct- reinforcing areas that you commonly observe damage can be prudent. The conclusion wasn’t a “lie,” it was not correct- that reinforcing those areas would save more lives. The data you gather is important. The sources and specifics. Your analysis of the data and conclusion- the part where you decide what the data “means” and how to act on it, or what you identify as the problem needing solves- very important.
This maybe is more relatable for most people- either first hand or through pop culture exposure. The classic “does this person like me?” Or “is this person mad at me?” You have data- how they act, the things they say, previous or known behaviors etc. and maybe a “feeling” or “vibe.” Ok. So using that data you’re going to come to a conclusion of yes or no- and if you’ve never had this happen and you’ve never come to the wrong conclusion and thought someone liked you when they didn’t or thought they didn’t but they did etc- you’ve probably seen it happen to others or in a book or show or movie etc.
“But they asked me to go to the beach just the two of us, that’s something you do with a crush not a friend!” Well… the first part is data. Fact. They DID ask you to go to the beach just the two of you. That second part is your assumptions and your analysis. You assume that asking you to the beach has specific context. The fact they told you they wanted to do so as friends means you..
.. applied the wrong assumption or you failed elsewhere in your analysis. It could be you were wrong on the data or it could be that something else occurred which you did not factor in which changed the situation. Maybe they did want it to be romantic when they asked but you did something or they found information between those points which changed the context of their desired relationship with you.
Assumptions, the data used and the data not considered, these shape an analysis of data. Without those things data is just that. Numbers and facts or estimates etc.
So be careful with “averages” and if you plan to dabble in statistics- which are surprisingly common in life, maybe take some statistics classes or study up on statistics and probabilities because most people are either hopelessly out of their depth or revert to some intuitive or assumed frame of reference and end up being very bad at examining and contextualizing data of the sort. In order to be able to act appropriately on data you need to have some ability to understand it. If you don’t understand the how’s and why’s and such of data- it is very easy to fool you or manipulate you if one desires, and to
The concept of the internet “lying,” and truth vs. true, you can’t know for yourself or determine what is or isn’t which if you don’t understand what you are being shown.
for example- if we consider earnings- if we were to use the average earnings in an industry full of contractors, a salaried employee might make $40,000 a year and a contractor might get $70,000 for the same job- but a contractor does not get benefits, a contractor does not have certain taxes withheld. So at the end of a year the take home pay for a contractor may be higher or lower than a salary employee despite them earning $70k vs $40k- but if there are 100,000 workers in that field and 80,000 are contractors- the average salary will be listed higher than $40k but no salaried employees will make that much and contractors may take home much more or much less than $40k.
Most importantly- we did NOT specify PUBLIC high school teachers. Private school teachers can make much more money than public school teachers. One also must understand that the general perception or argument that teachers are not well paid is itself “truth but not true.” Well paid is relative. “I don’t make enough to live…” well… let’s look at that.
What’s more, when we talk about not being paid a lot- a teacher can have after school responsibilities like meetings, classes, detention duty, programs, clean up, prep, tutoring, conferences, admin work, grading papers etc. they often need supplies for their classes and curriculums they must buy off school hours. A teacher Can work as much as a high powered lawyer or engineer, maybe 80-100 hours a week or more. If we base salary on a 40 hour work week, $40k for 40 hours a week isn’t terrible in general. If you are working 100 hours a week for $40k you are basically not making minimum wage by the hour.
So it isn’t always that teachers are paid some small amount- teachers, like many jobs, can be paid a relatively large amount that is small or insufficient either due to the work requirements or the area in which their job requires that they work- or both as well as other factors.
Especially before covid transplants and related factors warped the markets. If you double that to $80k you still would have trouble or find it impossible to buy a home in NYC or the SF bay. People making $120k+ in those areas have trouble or just can’t afford a home. Maybe a small condo or twin house. Maybe.
Especially when don’t nationally. When your single person dwelling is $3,000 a month in rent, $36,000 of your income automatically goes to housing compared to a place where your rent might be $1000 or less and a mortgage can be close to that. Transportation costs for city commuters can easily exceed $300 a month even without a car- and having a base model sub compact car can cost $1000 a month or more in a city. So a car and rent alone would cost you close to $50k a year- meaning you need to make at least $60k a year if you want to have even $1000 a month to eat and see the doctor and save and maybe… live life or have a family?
But…. We can also make another argument about teachers pay. If a teacher were laid a salary of $40,000 for the school year- it varies by school- some schools have lots of work during breaks and others have some and others- have none. Meaning a teacher CAN be off 4-6 months out of a year. If we pick 6 to make it easy- a teacher working 6 months and a salary of $40k would actually be getting $80k in theory if the salary was based on the entire year and not just the school year. In that sense $40k would be pretty healthy for working half the year. Of course asides the fact many teachers still work at least part of some breaks, also remember most teachers average more than 40 hours. So if you are working 80 hour weeks and working half the year you are still putting in
Some retail district managers make $50k or less a year and some retail places pay store managers $70-90k a year or more.
A generic job like “software developer” can pay $30k or less a year or over $200k a year. Depends on who you work for and where and other factors.
Data doesn’t lie, or at least accurate data. Data alone is useless. Let me tell you a story. In WW2 they were losing lots of bombers. They tracked it and saw that bombers coming back were shot up mostly around certain areas. A pattern of areas that bombers seemed to get shot in.
“But they asked me to go to the beach just the two of us, that’s something you do with a crush not a friend!” Well… the first part is data. Fact. They DID ask you to go to the beach just the two of you. That second part is your assumptions and your analysis. You assume that asking you to the beach has specific context. The fact they told you they wanted to do so as friends means you..
Assumptions, the data used and the data not considered, these shape an analysis of data. Without those things data is just that. Numbers and facts or estimates etc.
The concept of the internet “lying,” and truth vs. true, you can’t know for yourself or determine what is or isn’t which if you don’t understand what you are being shown.