>Things like household composition and non-cash income affect lived reality too.
And these things vary, sometimes greatly, based on where you live.
Barnstable County (where the Kennedys live and the Kochs have (had?) summer houses) for a long time (might still be) middle of the road, poor-ish (~35k median income 2010 census, current national average is 56k) on paper because the really rich claim primary residence elsewhere and the wealthy people who do claim residence are retired (retired engineering managers and whanot, these people aren't Murdoch rich) are mostly savvy enough to look poor on paper so they can get discounted services from the state and pass more of it on to their kids. Who does that leave? Well there's no white collar industry to speak of so it leaves the trademen who fix the plumbing in the Kennedy compound, the service industry and a few business owners. So the county winds up looking dirt poor on paper despite the fact that there's a ton of money sloshing around (and it shows when you look at how the tradesmen and small business owners live).
This is an extreme example but you can see how more minor differences when applied across an entire county or state could pollute a comparison when you're trying to compare very precise things, like how well off a median plumber in Reno is vs the median plumber in Chicago.
And these things vary, sometimes greatly, based on where you live.
Barnstable County (where the Kennedys live and the Kochs have (had?) summer houses) for a long time (might still be) middle of the road, poor-ish (~35k median income 2010 census, current national average is 56k) on paper because the really rich claim primary residence elsewhere and the wealthy people who do claim residence are retired (retired engineering managers and whanot, these people aren't Murdoch rich) are mostly savvy enough to look poor on paper so they can get discounted services from the state and pass more of it on to their kids. Who does that leave? Well there's no white collar industry to speak of so it leaves the trademen who fix the plumbing in the Kennedy compound, the service industry and a few business owners. So the county winds up looking dirt poor on paper despite the fact that there's a ton of money sloshing around (and it shows when you look at how the tradesmen and small business owners live).
This is an extreme example but you can see how more minor differences when applied across an entire county or state could pollute a comparison when you're trying to compare very precise things, like how well off a median plumber in Reno is vs the median plumber in Chicago.