[titanomachy]

It seems you're right. I know I was close to the average for my region, but that's a high cost-of-living city with a much higher median income than 35k. I may have also been conflating household and individual income.

Lessons: 1) I have no concept of the median experience in my country, 2) a single number can't answer the question "does this country have high taxes".

[MichaelBurjack]

Truthfully, the only reason I had the numbers at hand was because I'd personally fallen for your "Lesson #1" before.

I spent my 20s far below median (which I knew), and my 30s far above median (which I didn't realize, at least not at first). Very different lived experiences :)

And I know many folks around me (friends, family, colleagues) look around (confirmation bias & availability heuristic, amongst others) and believe that $60k-$80k (or more) represents a "typical" lived Canadian experience. They are, to a person, universally surprised to see the actual median income (as was I when first tracking it down).

It certainly is viewpoint-shifting. Cheers!