[confluence]

Long tail risks makes avg/var/standard distribution stuff useless. Best measure here would be the median income (50th percentile - or the 50th person out of 100).

Same thing with wealth distribution and taxes - averages are pointless since 1 rich guy + 99 poor guys will have an average of ~1/100 the rich guy (which is still a lot of money) - even though the poor guys have $0 in assets (usually negative equity because of debt).

The median of that distribution would be $0 - hence providing a better representation of actual probabilistic income/taxes.